m 



m 



in 



■ 

KeeS 



Sli 



\tsk 

1 



n 




Class 



PRESENTED I3Y 



I §^0 m OL* 






A SHORT HISTORY 

OF 

GREECE 



BY 



w. s.YeTobinson, m.a. 



.i$0 B I 



ASSISTANT MASTER AT WELLINGTON COLLEGE 
AUTHOR OF 'A FIRST HISTORY OF ROME ' 



NEW YORK 
MACMILLAN AND CO. 

1895 



IDFsus 



G/ft 
Edson L. Whitney 

DEC 8- 1938 



PEEFACE 

This short History of Greece is intended for younger 
students before they reach the standard of such books as 
Smith's or Oman's Histories. My aim has been to give a 
plain straightforward and continuous narrative of the career 
of the chief States which made up the Greek race ; and 
at the same time to point out the principles underlying 
their various lines of conduct and the general course of 
Greek history, especially as regards the eventual loss of 
national freedom ; so that the learner, while having plenty 
of facts to form a solid foundation for his knowledge, may 
at the same time be gradually led on to acquire some 
grasp of the history as a whole, and obtain some insight 
into the manner in which the- various events all contri- 
buted to the general result. The wars and battles have 
perhaps been described at rather greater length than is 
usual in elementary histories ; my object has been to 
increase their interest by making the reasons for the 
various operations and their results more intelligible. 
Maps have been added to explain the more important 
operations, and in a few cases battle plans : for these I 
do not claim any originality, having simply followed 
standard histories and atlases. Other maps have been 
inserted to bring out the importance of points in the 



iv HISTORY OF GREECE 

history, which might be difficult to grasp in the mass of 
detail of an ordinary atlas ; they are however intended 
to supplement, not supersede, the use of the atlas. 

As regards the difficult question of the spelling of 
Greek names, I have generally retained the conventional 
Latinised forms, somewhat against my own natural in- 
clination, in deference to what I believe to be the opinion 
of the great majority of teachers. I have, however, kept 
the diphthong ei in most of the names in which it occurs, 
instead of the Latin transliteration 'i,' which seems to 
me in some cases to destroy the significance of a name 
by obliterating its derivation. 

Two chapters on Greek writers and Greek life, which 
did not form part of my original scheme, have been 
inserted in deference to an expressed wish : in writing 
them I have relied chiefly on Professor Mahaffy's excel- 
lent History of Classical Greek Literature, and Professor 
Becker's well-known Charicles. 

In conclusion, I have to express my grateful thanks to 
Dr. Evelyn Abbott for kindly looking over the proofs, 
and to my friend and colleague, Mr. Herbert Awdry, for 
valuable suggestions and assistance. 



CONTENTS 



CHAP. 

I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 



PAGE 

The Ancient Greeks, . . . . 1 

Greece, 7 

The Religion of the Greeks, . . . 16 

The Prehistoric Times, .... 23 

The Dorians, 33 

The Peloponnese and Sparta, . . 38 

The Colonies, ..... 48 

The Tyrants, B.C. 700-500, ... 56 

Early History of Athens : Solon, . . 62 

,, „ Tyranny of 

Peisistratus and Reforms of Cleisthenes, 71 

The Persians and the Ionic Revolt, . 81 

The Persian Invasions : Marathon, . 91 

,, ,, Thermopylae and 

Salamis, . 100 



,, ,, Platsea and Mycale, 116 

The Confederacy of Delos, . . . 125 

The Reforms of Pericles, . . . 135 

The Land Empire of Athens, . . 142 

Athens loses her Land Empire : Thirty 

Years' Peace, ..... 150 
XIX. Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War : 

Death of Pericles, . . . . 158 

XX. Peloponnesian War — continued, . . 167 



ri HISTORY OF GREECE 

CHAP. PAGE 

XXI. Peloponnesian War (continued)-. Peace of 

Nicias, 174 

XXII. After the Peace of Nicias. The Argive 

League, 185 

XXIII. The Expedition against Syracuse, . 189 

XXIV. Ruin of the Expedition against Syracuse 

(B.C. 413), 198 

XXIY. Renewal of the Peloponnesian War : 

The Four Hundred at Athens, . . 206 
XXVI. The Peloponnesian War (continued) : 

Naval Victories of Athens, . . 215 

XXVII. The Fall of Athens.— End of the Pelo- 
ponnesian War, . . . . . 221 
XXVIII. The Spartan Supremacy.— The Thirty 

at Athens, 229 

XXIX. The Ten Thousand. — Xenophon and 

Socrates, 235 

XXX. Persian War. — Sparta loses her Naval 

Empire, 241 

XXXI. The Corinthian War. — Peace of Antal- 

cidas, 249 

XXXII. Seizure of the Cadmea. — The Boeotian 

War, 258 

XXXIII. Battle of Leuctra : The Theban Supremacy, 268 

XXXIV. Battle of Mantinea : End of the Theban 

Supremacy, 278 

XXXV. Philip of Macedon, .... 283 
XXXVI. Philip and Greece : The Second Sacred 

War, 289 

XXXVII. Third Sacred War : ChaBronea : End of 

Greek Freedom, ..... 297 





CONTENTS 


vii 


CHAP. 

XXXVIII. 


Alexander the Great : Overthrow of the 


PAGE 




Persian Empire, ..... 


308 


XXXIX. 


Conquest of the East : Death of Alexander, 


318 


XL. 


Greece during Alexander's Reign : The 






Lamian War, ..... 


326 


XLI. 


The Successors of Alexander, 


330 


XLII. 


The Achaean and ^Etolian Leagues and 






Conquest of Greece by the Remans, . 


338 


XLIII. 


Sicily and the West, .... 


346 


XLIV. 


The Literature of the Greeks, 


356 


XLV. 


The Private Life at Athens, . 


369 


XLVI. 


Conclusion, 


378 


Index, 




382 



LIST OF MAPS 



The States of Greece, 








8 


The Islands of the iEgean, 








14 


The Migrations, 








35 


Laconia and its Neighbours, 








39 


Colonies in Italy and Sicily, 








50 


The Nations of the East, . 








82 


The Neighbourhood of Miletus, 








89 


Xerxes's March, 








93 


Marathon, .... 








95 


Thermopylae and Artemisium, . 








105 


The Pass of Thermopylae, . 








107 


Battle of Salamis, 








112 


Battle of Plataea, 








118 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



Confederacy of Delos, 
The Long Walls of Athens, 
Bceotia and its Neighbours, 
Corcyra, .... 
Mouth of the Corinthian Gulf, , 
Pylus and Sphacteria, 
Amphipolis, ..... 
Siege of Syracuse, .... 
The Neighbourhood of the Hellespont, 
Route of the Ten Thousand, 
Isthmus of Corinth, .... 
Battle of Leuctra, .... 
The Cities of Arcadia, 
Macedonia at Philip's Accession, 
The Campaign of Ch?eronea, 
Campaigns of Alexander (i. ), 

(n.), . 



PAGE 

126 
144 
146 
159 
163 
175 
182 
194 
216 
237 
250 
269 
272 
28(1 
299 
309* 
317 



CHAPTER I 

THE ANCIENT GREEKS 

The three peoples of antiquity which have had the 
greatest influence on our modern life and civilisation are 
the Jews, the Romans, and the Greeks. To the Jews 
we owe our religion, to the Komans our systems of law and 
government, to the Greeks our art, literature, and science. 
It was the masterful Eonian who step by step conquered 
what was in old days the civilised world, and gave it the 
blessing of firm and peaceful rule ; but, as a Eoman poet 
tells us, ' captive Greece led captive her proud conqueror ' ; 
the Eonians had no real art or literature till the conquest of 
Greece revealed to them the treasures of the Greek mind. 
Wherever the Eoman arms penetrated victoriously, the 
influence of Greece penetrated too ; and when the Eoman 
Empire gradually came to its end, and the great modern 
nations of Europe began to rise, that influence still lived on, 
and in the present day its power is as great as ever. 

It is not only that men regard with wonder the master- 
pieces of the old Greeks, the glorious Homeric poems, and 
the statues which our sculptors try in vain to rival ; but in 
almost every branch of art and thought, even where we 
have attained results undreamed of in old days, it was the 
Greek who took the first steps. Our poets, painters, 
dramatists, historians, and philosophers, are but carrying on 
the work of their Greek forerunners ; and though in the 

A 



2 HISTORY OF GREECE 

realm of science the puny efforts of the Greek shrink into 
nothing beside the vast discoveries of modern times, yet it 
was they who first began to wonder what the world was 
made of and how it was made. 

What, then, were the qualities which gave this little race 
such a vast influence over the thought of the world % It 
was its love of all that is beautiful, and its keen intelligence, 
fostered, perhaps, by the lovely country and the clear 
climate in which it lived. Surrounded by so much that 
was beautiful, they were ever trying to imitate it in their 
buildings and sculptures, and their minds were busy think- 
ing over the great questions of man's life on earth and the 
world we live in. 

But it must not be supposed that these were the qualities 
of all the Greeks : they belong mainly to one tribe, the 
Ionian ; and among the Ionians to one state pre-eminently, 
Athens. There is little reason to doubt that the Athenians 
were gifted with considerably more intelligence than any 
European nation of the nineteenth century ; and Athens, a 
tiny state, no bigger than one of our counties, produced 
more great men, whose names will never die, than England 
ever has done. It is to Athens that we owe the greater part 
of our debt to the Greeks. It was Athens that first raised 
Greece to the rank of a great nation ; it was Athens that, 
when Greece had sunk to be a Koman province, still lived 
on as its intellectual capital, while Konie was its governing 
capital. It is around Athens, therefore, its successes and 
failures, its high qualities and shortcomings, that the interest 
of Greek history mainly centres. 

But with all their great qualities it must be confessed 
that the Greeks had great defects, defects which, it will be 
seen from their history, prevented them from really establish- 
ing themselves as a great nation. There was a want of 
solidity, a restlessness and fickleness in their nature ; more- 
over, like all the other great nations of antiquity, they 



THE ANCIENT GREEKS 3 

lacked the morality and softening influence of Christianity, 
which has so great an influence over our modern civilisa- 
tion. There is much deplorable crime and wickedness 
nowadays, for human nature is weak ; and there were many 
great and noble lives among the ancient Greeks, but they 
were inclined to admire what was clever rather than what 
was right, and in their history we shall find every state — 
even Athens — guilty of selfishness, cruelty, and perfidy, 
especially in their party struggles. 

They had also, as a nation, another great and fatal defect, 
their disunion. They were foncl of independence ; but 
they did not think of being an independent nation : each 
little city wanted to be independent, and was jealous of the 
slightest interference from its neighbours. This feeling was 
so firmly implanted in their nature that they could never 
rid themselves of it, and so they never became an united 
nation. It is a striking fact that the Greek word for a 
state and a city is the same, ' polis ' (ttoXls). Had there been 
one Greek state sufficiently strong to compel the others by 
main force to submit to it, perhajDs the history of Greece 
might have been different. But unfortunately there were 
two leading states. Athens, pre-eminent in intellect and 
enterprise, was well fitted to lead the Greek nation, and 
actually attempted the task ; but it had a rival, Sparta, the 
acknowledged head of Greece in military prowess. There 
was a long and bitter struggle between the rivals, and 
Athens was forced to succumb. Sparta tried to take up 
the task, but in vain ; in ruining Athens it had ruined the 
cnly hope of Greece. 

Once indeed, under the pressure of a great danger from 
Without, the Greeks did unite, and their union gave them 
che victory ; this was when the Persians tried to conquer 
Greece ; but even then the union was only partial, many 
states were lukewarm, some even joined the enemy. 
When, however, that danger passed away, and they imagined 



4 HISTORY OF GREECE 

that they were quite safe from foreign aggression, they 
gave themselves up again to their old quarrels and jealousies, 
and wore out their strength by continual wars. And so 
when the next danger came from the crafty and insidious 
aggressions of Philip, king of Macedonia, the Greeks, ex- 
hausted, disunited, and unsuspecting, fell an easy prey. 

Such is the course of the main chapter of Greek history, 
and it is a very short one, lasting little more than a hundred 
and fifty years. (1) The Persian wars (b.c. 490 and 480), 
when the Greeks led nominally by Sparta, but really by 
Athens, repulsed the invaders, raised them from an in- 
significant collection of tribes to a great power. (2) Athens, 
owing to her success in the wars, became the head of a 
confederacy chiefly naval, but was attacked by the other 
Greeks under the leadership of Sparta, and at last, after a 
long and heroic struggle, was successfully overthrown (b.c. 
404). (3) The Spartans, after holding the leadership for 
thirty years, were overthrown by the Thebans under 
Epaminondas (b.c. 371). (4) The ability of Epaminondas, 
the greatest general that Greece produced, raised Thebes to 
the leading place for ten years (b.c. 371-362). (5) Lastly 
comes the rise of Macedonia under its king Philip ; and 
the battle of Chaeronea (b.c. 338) saw the overthrow of 
Greek freedom in spite of all the efforts which Athens, 
almost unaided, was then capable of making. Here the real 
history of Greece closes ; it is followed by (6) the over- 
throw of Persia and establishment of the half- Greek 
Macedonian Empire by Alexander the Great, the son of 
Philip (b.c. 330) ; the break up of his Empire after his 
death ; the feeble efforts for independence of a few Greek 
states, and finally the conquest of the East and of Greece 
by the Romans (b.c. 146). 

The name Greeks which we apply to this people was ono 
which they never used themselves. They called themselves 
Hellenes and their country Hellas ; and the modern Greeks 



THE ANCIENT GREEKS $ 

still keep up the old name. It was the Eomans who called 
them Greeks (Grceci), because that was the name of the 
first inhabitants of the country with whom they came in 
contact, a small and quite unimportant tribe on the coast of 
Epirus ; and as we first read about the Greeks in Eoman 
writings, we adopted their name for them. These Greeks, 
though so disunited among themselves, were very proud of 
their nationality, and looked with great contempt on all 
foreigners ; they called them all barbarians, even the 
Eomans, but barbarians did not mean savages as it does 
now, but people speaking a foreign tongue, ' unintelligible 
people.' It is, however, difficult to draw an exact line 
between the Greeks and the Barbarians, the Greeks could 
not do it themselves ; some tribes regarded themselves 
as Greeks, whom the Greeks considered barbarians, for 
instance, the Macedonians and the tribes of Epirus. On 
one occasion indeed, a king of Macedonia claimed to 
compete in the great Olympic Games as a true Greek and 
his claim was allowed ; and the people of Epirus seem to 
have been to a certain extent Greeks, for the most ancient 
oracle of Greece, Dodona, was in the centre of Epirus. We 
must suppose then that there was on the outskirts of Greece 
a fringe of peoples half Greek and half barbarian. 

In historical times we find the Greeks divided into three 
branches speaking different dialects and possessing to a 
certain extent different characteristics ; there were the 
Ionians, Dorians, and ^Eolians. Of these the Ionians and 
Dorians were the most important, and there was a sharp 
contrast between them. The Ionians were keen-witted and 
enterprising ; it is from them, as has been said, that most of 
our debt to Greece comes, and one form of their dialect, 
that spoken by the Athenians, called Attic, became the 
ordinary literary dialect of Greece. The dialect of the 
Dorians was broader than that of the Ionians, they were 
slower and less enterprising, but generally better soldiers. 



6 HISTORY OF GREECE 

The chief Ionian state was Athens, the chief Dorian state 
Sparta ; the rivalry of the Ionians and Dorians, seen 
especially in the struggle for supremacy between Sparta 
and Athens, is the central fact in Greek history. The 
iEolians were generally inferior to the Ionians and Dorians, 
some of them being little better than barbarians ; the chief 
iEolian state was Thebes, the head of Bceotia. The other 
Greeks despised the Bceotians as being dull-witted and 
slow, but there was in their character some of that steadi- 
ness and persistence in which the Greeks were generally 
wanting. 



CHAPTER II 

GREECE 

The country inhabited by the Greeks is a peninsula 
iibout the size of Scotland. It has two strongly marked 
features, its mountains and its extraordinary extent of coast- 
line in proportion to its size. These two features had a 
great influence on the character of its inhabitants. The 
mountains cut the country up into a number of valleys 
forming separate states often difficult of access to one another, 
and so fostered that spirit of independence which has been 
referred to already ; while the soil was not naturally fertile 
enough to support the inhabitants without toil and thought, 
thus preventing them from losing that spirit through idle- 
ness and sloth. Secondly, owing to the indented coast-line 
almost every state had access to the sea ; and from the sea 
came their love of freedom and spirit of enterprise, and also 
the cool breezes which gave them a temperate climate and 
saved them from the enervating heat of the south. 

It is interesting, too, to notice that, while the western 
coast of Greece is inhospitable with few harbours, the 
eastern coast has many bays and harbours ; for which 
reason the enterprise of the Greeks turned first towards the 
Eastern nations, the Egyptians and Phoenicians, and it was 
not till a late period of their history that they came in 
contact with the Eomans, who being on the western coast 
of Italy naturally turned to the West. 

The peninsula of Greece runs in a southerly direction 

7 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



from the south-western end of the country that now forms 
Turkey in Europe, but was then inhabited by barbarian 
tribes, the Thracians to the East, and the Illyrians on the 




THE STATES OF GREECE 



Adriatic ; between Greece and Thrace, just at the angle 
where the peninsula begins, dwelt the half Greek Mace- 
donians in a bleak, hilly country. 



GREECE 9 

From the east of Macedonia a range of limestone 
mountains runs southwards forming the backbone of 
Northern Greece ; this is Mount Pindus. Pindus throws 
out a number of ridges westward, forming a rugged country 
which obtained from the Greek colonists of the islands off 
its coast the name of Eplrus (i.e. the mainland). The tribes 
dwelling in Epirus and its ancient oracle Doclona have 
been mentioned already. Eastwards, Pindus sends out 
another ridge (the Cambunian Mountains) dividing Mace- 
donia from Thessaly, the first district of Greece proper, and 
ending near the sea in the cloud-capped peak of Olympus, 
which the Greeks looked upon as the home of their gods. 

Thessaly is a broad square plain, by far the largest in 
Greece, its chief cities were Larissa and Pherae ; the 
Thessalians, who belonged to the iEolian branch, were 
famous horsemen, but they were behind the other Greeks 
in civilisation, and so played an unimportant part in their 
history. Along the eastern shore of Thessaly runs a ridge 
of mountains with two heights, Ossa and Pelion. Ossa lies 
just below Olympus and between them the Peneus, the 
chief river of Thessaly, forces its way to the sea through 
the lovely pass of Tempe, so often celebrated by the old 
poets. Tempe was the northern gate of Greece. South of 
Thessaly two other ridges, Mount Othrys and Mount 
(Eta, run from the southern extremity of Mount Pindus 
through a district occupied by unimportant tribes. The 
ridges of Mount (Eta come close to the sea and form 
the famous pass of Thermopylae, the Hot Gates (Seppos 
7rv\r]), so called from some hot springs in the neighbour- 
hood, the second and most important gate of Greece. In 
old days the pass was so narrow that there was only room 
for one cart to go through at a time, but now, owing to the 
earth brought down by the Kiver Spercheus, it is much 
wider. 

South of Thermopylae, Mount Pindus spreads out into 



io HIS TOR Y OF GREECE 

ranges running east and west from sea to sea, along the 
northern shore of the Gulf of Corinth. Westward dwelt 
the Acarnanians and iEtolians, divided by the river 
Achelous, and other tribes, as backward in civilisation as 
the Epirots. South and east lay the divided settlements of 
the Locrians, and between them the Phocians, iEolian tribes 
of no great importance except at certain points of Greek 
history. Phocis contains Mount Parnassus, famous as the 
home of the muses, the goddesses of poetry ; on its rugged 
side lay the town of Delphi, with an oracle sacred to the god 
Apollo, the greatest oracle of Greece. East of Phocis and 
south of the Locrians Bceotia stretched from sea to sea with 
its chief city Thebes ; in its centre is the marshy lake 
Copais, formed by the river Cephissus which is prevented 
by the mountains from reaching the sea, and in the south 
another mountain sacred to the muses, Mount Helicon, a 
continuation of the range of Parnassus. Boeotia was an 
agricultural country, with a heavy and moist climate, and 
its people were known for their solidity, or, as their enemies 
called it, their stupidity; they were an important state, but 
did not take a leading part in Greek history till towards 
the end. As soldiers they were always distinguished for 
their stubborn valour. Eastwards the ridge of Cithasron 
separates Boeotia from Attica ; on its western slopes lay 
the little town of Platsea, whose few thousand inhabitants 
played a part in Greek history out of all proportion to their 
numbers. 

Of the Athenians, the inhabitants of Attica, we have 
already spoken as one of the two greatest Greek states : 
sharply contrasted as they were in character with the 
Boeotians, it is not surprising that there was nearly always 
hostility between the two neighbours. Attica consists of 
plain and low mountains, the end of the mountain ridge. 
The most famous heights are Mount Hymettus, renowned 
for its honey, and Laurium for its silver mines. 



GREECE \\ 

The" southern half of Greece was called the Peloponnesus, 
or island of Pelops, from a mythical king of that name. It 
owes its shape to its mountains ; a little distance from the 
south shore of the Corinthian Gulf there runs a range 
corresponding to that along the north shore, from which 
other ranges run southwards and form the bold headlands 
running far out into the sea. The Peloponnesus is joined 
to Attica by the Isthmus of Corinth, a low neck of land 
about five miles wide, containing the two Dorian states of 
Megara and Corinth, which, having a harbour on each of 
the gulfs east and west, was the greatest trading city of 
Greece. East of Corinth lay a few small Dorian states, 
the most important of which were Phlius and Sicyon with 
a harbour on the Corinthian Gulf. 

South-eastwards a rugged peninsula runs out correspond- 
ing to Attica, this was the Dorian Argolis with its chief 
town Argos ; it contained also Mycenae, where Agamemnon 
the mythical head king of Greece reigned, and some other 
cities generally independent of Argos. 

Further south Laconia runs out into two capes, Tsenarum 
and Malea, formed by the two mountain-ranges of Taygetus 
and Parnon ; in the rich and fertile valley between them 
on the Kiver Eurotas lay Sparta or Lacedeenion, the home of 
the bravest soldiers of Greece, the greatest of the Dorian 
states and the rival of Athens. The barren tract of coast 
on the eastern slopes of Mount Parnon was called Cynuria, it 
originally belonged to Argos but was conquered by Sparta. 
West of Mount Taygetus dwelt the Dorian Messenians ; 
they were also conquered by the Spartans, whose territory 
then stretched from sea to sea. 

In the centre of the Peloponnesus, in the heart of its 
mountain-system, dwelt a number of little tribes called the 
Arcadians ; secure in their mountain valleys, and cut off 
from intercourse with the other Greeks, they had for the 
most part a peaceful existence, tending their flocks, but 



12 HISTORY OF GREECE 

making little advance in civilisation till a late period in 
Greek history. Hence Arcadia has become a proverbial 
expression for a quiet pastoral life. Two cities, however, 
Mantinea and Tegea, formed an exception ; lying on the 
borders of Argos and Sparta, on the road from Sparta to 
the Isthmus, they were frequently at war with those states 
and one another. . West of Arcadia the fertile plains of Elis 
stretch to the sea, watered by two rivers, the Peneus (not to 
be confused with the river of Thessaly) rising in Mount 
Erymanthus, and the Alpheus which is fed by the moun- 
tain streams of Arcadia. The two largest towns in this 
district were Elis on the Peneus, and Pisa near the Al- 
pheus. The Eleans conquered the Pisatans (b.c. 572), and 
utterly destroyed their city ; the city of Elis itself was not 
built till after the Persian wars. The Eleans played no great 
part in Greek history, being practically subject to Sparta. 
On the narrow strip of land between the mountains and the 
Corinthian Gulf, lay the twelve cities of the Achaeans, who 
formed a confederacy among themselves ; they kept aloof 
from the struggles of the other Greeks, and only came into 
prominence after the great period of the national history, 
just before the final extinction of Greek independence. 

Outside the limits of Greece proper, on the coast of 
Thrace, just east of Macedonia, is a district called Chalci- 
dice, which was colonised by Ionians, and became of great 
importance in Greek history ; it runs out into the sea in 
three rugged capes, Acte, Sithonia, and Pallene, like a 
three-pronged fork ; the headland of the easternmost of the 
three, Mount Athos, obtained an evil notoriety for its storms. 

Besides the Gulf of Corinth, the most important gulfs 
and bays are the Pagasoean Gulf in Thessaly, a landlocked 
bay between Mount Pelion and Othrys, the Malian Gulf 
between Mounts Othrys and (Eta, close to Thermopylae, 
the Saronic Gulf between Attica and Argolis ; the Argolic, 
Laconian, and Messenian , Gulfs, the Bay of Pylus in 



GREECE 13 

Messenia, famous in Greek history, and also the scene of 
the sea-fight of Navarino, by which Greece was freed from 
the Turks (a.d. 1829), and the Ambracian Gulf between 
Epirus and iEtolia. 

A mountainous country like Greece has naturally many 
islands off its coast. On the west there is only the group 
now known as the Ionian Islands : most of them lie off 
the mouth of the Corinthian Gulf, among which Ithaca, the 
home of Odysseus (Ulysses), only claims mention, though 
one of the smallest. The largest and most important 
island, Corcyra (now Corfu), lies apart further north off 
the coast of Epirus ; it was a Corinthian colony, and, like 
its mother city, famous for its commerce. In the south, 
off Cape Malea, lay the Dorian island of Cythera. On the 
east the long mountainous island of Eubcea extends along 
the coast from Thessaly to the extremity of Attica : it was 
inhabited by Ionians, with two cities, Chalcis and Eretria, 
about the centre of its inner coast. The strait between 
Euboea and the mainland narrows opposite Chalcis to 
about fifty yards, and is there called the Euripus. Between 
Attica and Argolis in the Saronic Gulf are two islands, the 
Ionian Salamis close into the Attic shore, famous for the 
great sea-fight against the Persians, and the Dorian iEgina, 
in early days a great rival of Athens. It is in the iEgean 
that we find the extraordinary assemblage of islands so 
characteristic of Greece. In number over a hundred, many 
mere mountain peaks rising from the sea, they form a con- 
tinuous chain from the coast of Greece to the south-west 
corner of Asia Minor, thus enabling voyages to be made 
across the iEgean in days when sailors feared to be out of 
sight of land. These islands were mostly Ionian, but those 
to the south were Dorian. They were divided into two 
groups, a western one called the Cyclades, or circling 
islands, so called because they formed a rough circle round 
the little island of Delos, held sacred as the birthplace of 



14 



HISTOR Y OF GREECE 



Apollo, and an eastern one off the Asiatic coast called the 
Sporades, or scattered islands. The most important of 
the Cyclades were the Ionian Naxos and the Dorian 



H 



R 



Thermal 



^^halcidice^^ 


; 


,0 : - ^ 


Sjjjli^v- 


•35. 


& 

Qjjjjpfc 


#2111=11 


:--. " rr 


^«£p 


\§yp^ L 


;v 


~ -Eesboss, 







H R Y G I A 



Site of Troy 



M Y S I A 




THE ISLANDS OF THE iEGEAN 

Melos ; of the Sporades, the Ionian Samos, and the Dorian 
Cos and Ehodes, the latter a large island whose navy 
attained considerable celebrity in the latter days of Greek 



GREECE 15 

history. Further south, stretching the whole breadth of 
the iEgean, lay the Dorian Crete, with many cities, but 
of little importance. In the northern part of the iEgean 
were several other islands, the most important being the 
Ionian Chios and the iEolian Lesbos, both off the Asiatic 
coast. Further north, off the Thracian coast, lay the 
Ionian island of Thasos. 



CHAPTER III 

THE RELIGION OF THE GREEKS 

It must not be thought from what was said in a previous 
chapter about the character of the Greeks that they had no 
religion. They believed in a Supreme Power which rules 
the world and the destinies of mankind, and punishes men 
hereafter for gross sins ; but they regarded this Power as 
a sort of superior human being endued with all the feelings 
and attributes of men, whose goodwill must be gained by 
continual sacrifices and festivals, and whose jealousy and 
wrath was easily aroused by excessive prosperity and over- 
weening pride ; this Supreme Power also from time to 
time communicated to mankind advice and a knowledge of 
the future at certain of his shrines or oracles (as we call 
them from the Latin word). 

This supreme power they worshipped under various 
forms and guises taken from the natural world around 
them : in fact, their religion was a nature worship. Chief 
of all the deities was the Sky-father, Zeus, with his wife 
Hera ; others were the Earth-mother, Demeter, who was 
also the goddess of corn ; the Sea-god, Poseidon, who was 
also the Earth-shaker, who shook the land w T ith earth- 
quakes ; the Sun-god, Phoebus Apollo, also the god of 
prophecy and music ; Pallas Athene, the virgin goddess 
of wisdom and handicraft ; Aphrodite, the goddess of love ; 
Ares, the god of war ; the Moon-goddess Artemis, also a 
great huntress ; Hepha?stus, the god of fire and metal- 
16 



THE RELIGION OF THE GREEKS 17 

working ; Hermes, the messenger of the gods ; and, lastly, 
Dis, the gloomy king of the realms below, the regions 
of the dead. These were twelve greater deities, and their 
home was Mount Olympus, in Thessaly, whose snowy top 
could be seen far away on the northern border rising up 
amid the clouds. 

But besides these gods there were other lesser deities, for 
the Greeks made a deity of everything in nature they saw 
about them : the sea was peopled with Nereids, every 
stream or spring had its Naiad, every wood its Dryad, every 
river was a god. Then there was Pan, the god of shepherds, 
often represented as half a goat, with his attendant Satyrs 
of similar form, Dionysus or Bacchus the god of wine, 
worshipped in wild orgies on the hills by women called 
Bacchantes or Maenads, iEsculapius the god of healing, 
Heracles the god of strength, and many others. 

Many of these deities were probably originally the 
special god of some particular community ; Pan was the 
special god of the shepherds of Arcadia ; Artemis of 
Ephesus ; Poseidon was worshipped specially at Corinth. 
Others were introduced from abroad, as Dionysus from 
Thrace, while Aphrodite was probably the Phoenician 
Astaroth. As intercourse grew between the different tribes, 
a knowledge of their gods spread also, and thus the number 
of the gods generally believed in increased ; stories arose 
about them, which were taken up and embellished by the 
singers and poets, and thus gradually the Greek mytho- 
logy was formed, the most beautiful poetic mythology 
which the world possesses. So beautiful did it seem to 
the Komans when they became acquainted with the Greeks, 
that they took it to themselves and grafted it on to their 
own religion, identifying their own gods and goddesses as 
far as they could with the Greek ones. 

Besides the gods the Greeks also worshipped great heroes, 
many of whom were fabled to be the sons of gods or 

B 



1 8 HISTORY OF GREECE 

goddesses and after death were received in Olympus as gods. 
Thus Heracles was originally a hero and a son of Zeus ; and 
his Twelve Labours are one of the most famous Greek 
legends ; Achilles was the son of a sea-goddess ; and we 
shall read of Alexander the Great in like manner claiming to 
be a son of Zeus. These heroes were worshipped by the 
states or families who considered themselves descended 
from them. 

The Greeks of the historical age no doubt had ceased to 
believe in all the wonderful legends about the gods ; in fact, 
in a comedy of Aristophanes publicly represented at Athens 
B.C. 406, we find the lesser gods Dionysus and Heracles 
held up to ridicule ; but the worship of the different gods 
and heroes was scrupulously kept up and had a real mean- 
ing. The more educated no doubt regarded them merely 
as symbols of the supreme power, but to the ordinary 
people they were something very real ; and in addition 
they were closely bound up with the national life. One 
form, in which we find this religious feeling showing itself, is 
the great importance that was attached to the burial of the 
dead ; the reason of which was that the spirit of an un- 
buried person was believed to be unable to obtain rest in 
the world below. After a battle, therefore, it was the 
custom for the defeated party to ask leave to bury their 
dead under a truce ; and the asking for this burial-truce was 
regarded as an acknowledgment of defeat. 

Besides the ordinary sacrifices and temple services, and 
the private hero-worship of families, there were many 
public festivals in honour of the gods. The most important 
of these were the ' Games ' ; in the Homeric times we find 
games forming a part of the funeral rites of a hero ; and in 
the same way they formed part of the worship of the gods. 
Of the many games in Greece four grew to be of national 
importance, and Greeks of every state and colony flocked to 
them. These four were the Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian, 



THE RELIGION OF THE GREEKS icr 

and Nemean. The Olympic Games were the greatest of all ; 
they were held in honour of the Olympian Zeus every 
fifth year at Olympia on the Kiver Alpheus in Elis ; they 
were originally confined to the Eleans and Pisatans, and 
the Eleans presided, though the Pisatans disputed their 
claim down to a late period in Greek History. But at an 
early period they had become such a national institution 
that it became the fashion to reckon time by Olympiads 
(periods of four years) ; the first Olympiad was B.C. 776, 
that being the first year in which regular records of the 
victors were kept. The original competition was the 
footrace ; afterwards other competitions were added from 
time to time, the ' Pentathlum ' or ' Five Contests,' namely, 
running, jumping, wrestling, throwing the quoit, and throw- 
ing the javelin ; the ' Pancratium,' boxing and wrestling 
together, chariot races and horse races ; but the footrace 
remained the chief competition and the winner of it gave 
his name to that year's festival. The games lasted five days ; 
any one who could prove himself a true Greek could compete. 
All that a successful competitor received was a wreath of 
wild olive, but he received the highest honours and often a 
pecuniary reward from his native city ; poems even were 
composed in his honour. Pindar, a great Theban poet, used 
to compose such poems, many of which have come down to 
us. Each state sent a deputation to the games and vied 
with one another in the magnificence of their equipment. 
Vast crowds from all parts of Greece came to the spectacle, 
merchants were there and did a busy trade ; while poets 
and other writers took the opportunity to recite their works. 
The other games need no separate description. The 
Pythian were celebrated at Delphi in honour of Apollo 
every fourth year, the prize was a wreath of bay. The 
Nemean every other year in the valley of Nemea, near 
the town of Phlius in honour of Zeus, the prize being 
a wreath of parsley. The Isthmian every other year at 



20 HISTORY OF GREECE 

the Isthmus in honour of Poseidon, the prize being a wreath 
of pine leaves. Among other festivals in which there 
were competitions were the Dionysia, festivals at Athens 
in honour of the god Dionysus ; at these festivals, of which 
there were two, there were musical and poetical competitions; 
by the time of the Persian wars plays were acted ; each 
poet competing sent in four plays, and they were acted one 
after another in the great theatre which could hold nearly 
the whole male population of Athens. Such was the origin 
of the splendid tragedies of iEschylus, Sophocles, and 
Euripides, many of which have come down to us. 

There were many other festivals without contests in every 
city ; they consisted of processions, songs, and dancing. 
The greatest of these was the one held at Athens in honour 
of its patron goddess Athene, called the Panathenaic Pro- 
cession, in which the Athenian knights rode in procession 
through the city. 

Another famous Athenian festival was the Eleusinian 
Mysteries, celebrated at Eleusis (see map on p. 112), in 
honour of the goddess Demeter. Every true-born Athenian 
was obliged to be initiated into these 'mysteries/ the 
secret of which has never been revealed. The festival 
lasted nine days, and the public part of it consisted mainly 
of processions, one of which was from Athens to Eleusis. 

It jvas by means of festivals like the Olympic Games that 
religion had the effect of uniting the Greeks together and 
making them feel a nation. It also united them in another 
way. It was the custom in the early days of Greece for a 
number of neighbouring little tribes to join together for the 
common worship of some god. Such a meeting was called 
an ' Amphictyony,' or meeting of neighbours ; and the 
members of an Amphictyony used to agree to protect the 
temple of their god and never to destroy any town belong- 
ing to the Amphictyony or to cut it off from water in war 
or peace. It is noticeable that they did not undertake not 



THE RELIGION OF THE GREEKS 21 

to fight against one another. The most famous of these 
leagues was the one known in history as the Amphictyonic 
League. It comprised twelve tribes dwelling north of the 
Isthmus, including the Thessalians, Boeotians, Ionians, 
Dorians, and other less important tribes, and its object was 
to worship Apollo at Delphi. The Amphictyonic Council 
of two delegates from each tribe met twice every year, once 
at Delphi and once at Thermopylae. In later times, when 
the Dorians and Ionians, as we shall see, became the two 
greatest tribes of Greece, the Amphictyonic League became 
in effect a league of all Greece. 

Its meetings, however, were of little importance, and we 
do not hear of it except when the god of Delphi was in any 
way attacked. The first of these occasions was in the year 
B.C. 595, when the Council declared war on Cirrha, the port 
of Delphi, on the Corinthian Gulf, because its inhabitants 
levied toll on pilgrims who landed there for Delphi, and 
otherwise ill-treated them The war lasted ten years, and 
in the end Cirrha was taken and destroyed and its territory 
dedicated to the god — that is, it was to remain uncultivated. 

This was the First Sacred War. Two hundred and fifty 
years afterwards the Amphictyonic Council brought about 
another sacred war which proved the death-blow of Greek 
liberty, as will be described hereafter. 

Perhaps the strangest feature of Greek religion was the 
oracles. There were many oracles in Greece, and the 
answers to inquirers were given in many different ways. 
At Dodona, already mentioned, it was the wind sounding 
through the leaves of the oak trees. But the greatest of all 
the oracles, and the one which we always read of the Greeks 
consulting in historical times, was the oracle of Apollo at 
Delphi. There, in a cave, a priestess called the Pytho was 
placed on a tripod over a chasm, from which rose a noxious 
gas. Intoxicated by the fumes, she uttered wild and incoherent 
cries, which the priests said they alone could comprehend 3 



22 HISTORY OF GREECE 

and which they interpreted to the inquirer. Their answers 
were always in verse. It is strange how the oracle of 
Delphi succeeded in maintaining its character for being able 
to predict the future : there is no sign of the Greeks dis- 
believing its prophetic powers. The priests were doubtless 
shrewd men and better informed about Greece and the 
surrounding nations than the ordinary Greek ; they could 
therefore often give good advice, and if asked about the 
future they often answered vaguely, and sometimes, as we 
shall see, ambiguously. Many presents were given to the 
god by thankful inquirers : kings, states, arid private indi- 
viduals ; sometimes, too, it must be confessed, the priests 
were not above accepting bribes. Thus the temple, in 
course of time, came to contain a treasure of vast amount. 
These oracles, especially Delphi, being consulted by all 
the Greeks, were another bond of union, and we shall find 
them in the early times exercising no little influence on the 
fortunes of the different states. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE PREHISTORIC TIMES 

The Greeks themselves tell us nothing of their origin ; 
they considered that they always dwelt in Greece, though 
many migrations and changes took place among the various 
tribes. In their legends Hellen, the supposed ancestor of 
the Hellenes, was the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, the 
only survivors of a flood which Zeus sent to punish man- 
kind for its wickedness. The Athenians in particular 
believed that, though the other Greeks had changed their 
abodes, they had always dwelt in Attica, and were, as they 
said, born from the soil, and in commemoration of this 
fact they used to wear golden grasshoppers in their hair. 

Historians, however, long felt that there must have been 
some connection between the Greeks and Romans, owing 
to the many similarities in their language and character, 
and they attempted in many ways to account for the fact. 
But it was not till the present century that the discovery 
and study of Sanskrit, the ancient language of the Hindoos, 
preserved in their sacred books, gave the true explanation. 
By comparing Sanskrit with Greek, Latin, English, and 
other languages of Europe, living and dead, and with Zend, 
the ancient language of the Persians, it was discovered that 
most of the modern languages of Europe, Persian, Hindu, 
with Latin and Greek, though now so different, were all 
sprung from a single parent language, and that therefore all 
these nations were originally one nation, but so long ago 

23 



24 HISTORY OF GREECE 

that every record of it has been utterly lost. This ancient 
nation, to which the name Aryan has been given, is 
generally thought to have dwelt somewhere in the central 
highlands of Asia, north-west of India. Thence, as the 
population increased, swarms wandered off, some eastward 
and southward, forming the Hindu, Median, Persian, and 
other kindred nations, others further and further westward, 
covering all Europe, till they were stopped by the sea ; 
thus the Celts settled in Gaul and Spain, and even crossed 
the Channel into Britain, the Italians came into Italy, the 
Greeks into Greece, the Teutons or Germans settled in 
Central Europe, whence, under the names of Goths, Franks, 
Vandals, Saxons, and the like, they broke out in after years 
and overthrew the crumbling Eoman Empire, and founded 
the modern nations of Western Europe ; further east the 
Slavs settled and formed the modern Eussian nation. It is 
probable, too, that the neighbours of the Greeks in Asia 
Minor and Europe were Aryans also ; but for some reason 
the tribes settled in Greece raised themselves to a far higher 
pitch of civilisation. Thus the Greeks in time came to 
regard themselves as a distinct and superior race, although, 
as has been already pointed out, no definite line can be 
drawn between them and those whom they called bar- 
barians. 

These Aryans were not the first inhabitants of Europe ; 
remains found in various parts of the continent prove the 
existence of an inferior race which disappeared under the 
gradual advance of the new settlers ; of this race some 
people consider the Laplander and Esquimaux to be the 
survivors. But it wholly disappeared in Greece and left no 
traces unless the buildings of huge rough-hewn stones, 
called Cyclopean, found in some parts of Greece, are to be 
ascribed to it. 

Some authorities ascribe the Cyclopean buildings to a 
people called the Pelasgi. Ancient Greek writers tell us 



THE PREHISTORIC TIMES 2$ 

that many of the settlements in Greece were originally 
occupied by the Pelasgi, and there was a tradition that the 
Athenians were of Pelasgic as well as Ionian descent. 
Also these writers say that in their day there were Pelasgic 
cities on the outskirts of Greece, but they .differ as to 
whether these cities were to be regarded as Greek or 
barbarian : however, we shall not be far wrong if we 
consider the Pelasgi as a ruder and less civilised branch of 
the Greek race. 

All then that we can say with certainty about the origin 
of the Greeks is that at some remote period, so remote that 
neither history nor legend goes back to it, a race which we 
call Aryan gradually spread over Southern Europe, some 
tribes of which penetrated into the country now called Greece, 
most of them probably coming overland through Thrace, 
but some possibly across the sea from Asia Minor ; which 
tribes in after ages gradually grew into the Greek nation. 
But for a long time they had no national name to distinguish 
them from their neighbours, for the Hellenes were only 
one among many tribes and dwelt in Thessaly. 

These ancient Greeks were an agricultural people tilling 
the land in the valleys of the mountains. They early 
became civilised and built cities, for most of the great cities 
we read of in Greek history are mentioned as existing in the 
legends. Much of their civilisation seems to have come 
from abroad, especially from the Phoenicians and Egyptians. 

The Phoenicians were not Aryans like the Greeks and 
Persians, but belonged to another race called Semitic 
(descendants of Shem), which included the Jews, the 
Chaldseans and Assyrians in Mesopotamia, and the Arabs. 
Their chief town was Tyre on the coast of Syria above 
Palestine, and they were the greatest traders of antiquity ; 
their fleets sailed all over the Mediterranean, and in many 
places they founded settlements to trade with the natives ; 
it will be remembered how King Solomon's friend Hiram, 



26 HISTORY OF GREECE 

king of Tyre, used to send a fleet every three years to 
Tarshish, or Tartessus, in Spain. Before the Greeks them- 
selves took to the sea, these Phoenicians visited their coasts 
to trade, and, in some cases, even settled in the country. 
They taught the Greeks many useful arts, for in those days 
the Eastern nations were more advanced in civilisation. 
Among other arts the Phoenicians introduced writing and 
the alphabet ; we know that the art of writing was early 
known in the East from the stone inscriptions now found 
there ; and a Greek legend says that the alphabet was 
introduced by Cadmus who came from the East and founded 
the city of Thebes. So the Greeks owed a great debt to 
the Phoenicians. 

The Egyptians too, who had already been a powerful 
and prosperous State for centuries, must have exercised 
some influence on the early Greeks. There are traces in 
the legends of the coming of Egyptians to Greece, and in 
the Egyptian records we hear of Greek traders in Egypt, 
probably from the islands. It seems to have been from 
the Egyptians that the Greek first learnt the art of sculp- 
ture, which in after years they carried to a pitch undreamt 
of by their teachers, producing those marvellous works of 
art which are still the wonder of the world. 

The first real glimpse which we obtain of the ancient 
Greeks and their life is in the Homeric Poems. They con- 
sist of two Epic Poems, that is, songs of fighting and adven- 
ture, each in twenty-four books : the Iliad describing the 
siege of Troy or Ilium by the Greeks, and the Odyssey 
describing the ten years 5 adventures of Odysseus (Ulysses) 
when returning home to Ithaca after the taking of Troy. 

The tradition is that these two poems were composed 
by a blind poet called Homer who lived between 1100 
and 900 b.c. Seven cities, mostly on the coast of 
Asia Minor, claimed to be his birthplace. Some Greek 
writers however held that the Iliad and Odyssey were not 



THE PREHISTORIC TIMES 27 

by the same author, and many modern scholars go even 
further. Some say that no such poet as Homer ever 
existed, and that the two poems are merely a collection 
of lays composed by different poets ; some that Homer 
composed an Iliad much shorter than the one we possess, 
and that other lays were afterwards added to it ; others 
again that Homer found the lays already existing and com- 
bined them into a poem ; but nearly all agree that the 
Odyssey had a separate origin from the Iliad. Where scholars 
differ so much among themselves it is useless to attempt to 
arrive at any definite conclusion as to the authorship of the 
poems ; but there is no doubt that whoever the author or 
authors were, and whatever their original form was, they 
were lays sung by wandering ministrels in the halls of 
kings and nobles, at a very early date, about 800 years 
before Christ, in the Ionian settlements on the Asiatic 
coast which will be mentioned later. It is certain that, 
whatever their origin was, they are the most splendid 
product of the Greek poetical genius, the grandest epics 
that the world has ever seen. Other epics were composed 
afterwards to complete the story, but they were all far 
inferior, and have fallen into oblivion. 

The story of the siege of Troy is as follows. Paris, son of 
Priam the king of Troy (Troja or Ilium), a city in the north- 
western corner of Asia Minor (see p. 28), when on a visit 
to Greece, won the love of Helen, the most beautiful woman 
on earth, wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta, and persuaded 
her to fly with him to Troy. Thereupon Agamemnon, 
king of Mycenae in Argolis, the brother of Menelaus and 
the most powerful of all the kings of Greece, collected a 
vast host from all parts of Greece and sailed against Troy. 
The bravest hero in the host was Achilles, chief of the tribe 
of Myrmidons, the son of Peleus, a Thessalian king, and the 
sea-goddess Thetis. The Iliad opens in the tenth year of 
the war : the Greeks are encamped on the sea-shore before 



28 HISTORY OF GREECE 

the walls of Troy, but a quarrel arises between Achilles 
and Agamemnon about a beautiful captive named Briseis, 
and Achilles in wrath refuses to fight any more. Then the 
Trojans led by Hector, the bravest of the sons of Priam, 
discomfit the Greeks and almost take their camp ; and 
Achilles allows his friend Patroclus to put on his own 
armour and lead the Myrmidons to the rescue, but, by the 
aid of Apollo, Hector slays him. Then at last Achilles, 
to avenge his friend, comes out to fight ; the Trojans all flee 
except Hector, and Achilles, by the aid of the goddess 
Athene, slays him. The poem ends with the funerals of 
Patroclus and Hector. 

The later epics related how Paris slew Achilles with an 
arrow but was himself afterwards slain ; and how the 
Greeks, finding all their attempts unavailing, at last 
captured Troy by a stratagem. For they made a huge 
wooden horse which they filled with warriors, and left on 
the sea-shore while they themselves sailed away and lay 
hid behind a neighbouring island. The Trojans think- 
ing the horse was an offering to the goddess Athene, 
drew it into their city, and in the night the warriors came 
out of the horse and opened the city gates to the rest 
of the host which had meantime returned. 

How much of this story are we to consider historically true? 
Dr Schliemann, the great German antiquary, did indeed 
find the remains of a city, though a very small one, on the 
site where Troy was supposed to have existed ; so we may 
suppose that there was a city Troy which was besieged and 
destroyed, and the siege may have been the one described 
in the Homeric Poems. But the whole story is full of 
the marvellous, the gods and goddesses play as important 
a part as the heroes, and many of the heroes are sons of 
gods or goddesses, so that it is impossible to separate the 
true from the legendary. Agamemnon and Achilles, Priam 
and Hector may have been real people ; but we cannot 



THE PREHISTORIC TIMES 29 

regard the Iliad as anything more than a splendid poetical 
legend. 

At the same time, besides their poetical charm the Homeric 
Poems have a great historical value, because they give us 
the first real glimpse of the early Greek world, of Greece in 
the Homeric age as it is often called, and tell us in what 
way the Greeks of the author's day lived. 

In the first place we find a great difference between 
Homeric and Historic Greece : the Dorians and Ionians, 
the two great tribes of historical Greece are hardly ever 
mentioned in Homer. In those days the Dorians were 
an insignificant tribe dwelling in Thessaly, and Athens 
was an unimportant town ; the great tribe then were the 
Achseans who held all the Peloponnese. Moreover, there 
was no sharp distinction between Greeks and barbarians. 
Homer does, indeed, describe some savage nations as bar- 
barous speaking, but the Trojans and their allies are no 
more different from the Greeks in their manner of life and 
way of fighting than in after times one Greek state was 
from another. As has been mentioned already, the Greeks 
had then no national name such as Hellenes ; Homer calls 
them either Achasans, because most belonged to that 
tribe, or Argives, as subjects of the king of Argos, or 
Danaans, which also meant Argives. It is plain, there- 
fore, that the feeling of nationality and superiority to other 
nations only grew up gradually in the Greek mind ; but 
why they adopted the name of the little tribe of Hellenes, 
in order to mark the distinction, it is difficult to say. 

In the Homeric age the Greek states were ruled by 
kings : the throne was hereditary, but the people had 
a voice in the succession, and the fittest to lead in 
war, not the nearest in descent, was usually chosen to 
succeed. The king commanded the army in war ; in the 
Homeric poems he is always a mighty warrior, holding his 
position in virtue of his military prowess ; the battles con- 



30 HIS TOR Y OF GREECE 

sist simply of the individual exploits of these heroes, who 
unlike the Greeks of later times fought in chariots, the 
rank and file of the armies playing a very unimportant part. 
The king was also priest, sacrificing to the gods in the 
name of the state, though there were other priests also in 
attendance on the temples ; and he was judge, and ad- 
ministered justice to his people in the market-place 
according to the ordinances of Zeus, that is the simple 
notions of right and wrong, for of actual laws there were 
none. He lived a simple life, without any of the mystery 
and pomp that surrounded the sacred person of an Eastern 
monarch ; and his power was not absolute, but was defined 
by clearly understood limits. 

Next to the king came the council of the nobles or 
Boule (BovX^), whose duty it was to give him advice in 
matters of state and the administration of justice. In 
Homer, Agamemnon's council consisted of the other kings. 
Thirdly, there was the assembly of the people in the 
market-place, the Agora ('Ayopa), who were not allowed 
to speak, but could vote yes or no to the questions sub- 
mitted to it by the king. 

The Greeks of the Homeric age present a strange mix- 
ture of cruelty and chivalry ; human life was held cheap ; 
in war the victor invariably insulted and triumphed over 
his prostrate foe, and the fate of the inhabitants of a cap- 
tured city was death or slavery. Piracy was considered 
an honourable calling. On the other hand, hospitality was 
always. freely given to the stranger who asked for it; to 
slay a guest was thought a great crime, for guests were 
under the special protection of Zeus. Still greater crime 
was it to slay a relation, such an act, even if excusable, 
could only be expiated by exile and purification from 
blood-guiltiness. 

The picture of family life in Homer, the affection of 
husband and wife, of Hector and Andromache in the 



THE PREHISTORIC TIMES 31 

Iliad, and of Odysseus and Penelope in the Odyssey, and 
the reverence of children towards their parents, is very 
beautiful, and hardly falls short of the Christian ideal. 
The home life was very simple : while the men were occu- 
pied in the fields or in affairs of state, the women were 
busied with household matters, and spinning and weaving ; 
the mistress of the house, even when a queen, sat amid her 
maidens superintending their labours, but, at the time of 
the evening meal, she came forward and took her place by 
her husband. 

Most of the work in the houses and on the land was 
performed by slaves, though hired labourers are also 
mentioned. These slaves were either prisoners of war or 
persons kidnapped by roving pirates and sold into distant 
lands. But they were few in number and well treated, and 
there are many instances of affection between master and 
slave. Money was unknown, the usual means of ex- 
change being cattle ; 'rich in flocks and herds ' is a common 
epithet for a king. 

The world, as described in the Homeric poems, is very 
small, comprising chiefly Greece and the coast of the 
iEgean ; even the west coast of Greece was but little 
known to the author of the Odyssey ; his description of 
Ithaca is incorrect, and in its neighbourhood he places an 
imaginary nation of traders called the Phaeacians, thought 
by some to be the Corcyrteans. The Phoenicians and 
Egyptians are described ; in the extreme south dwelt the 
black ^Ethiopians ; in the extreme north, which was known 
to be cold, the Hyperboreans, or dwellers beyond the north 
wind. The description of everything west of Greece is 
wholly imaginary and fabulous ; we read of the narrow 
strait, supposed to be the Strait of Messina, with the whirl- 
pool Charybdis on one side, and the man-devouring she 
monster Scylla on the other ; the lawless one-eyed giant, the 
Cyclops ; the man-devouring nation of the Lsestrygonians ; 



32 HISTORY OF GREECE 

the island of the Sirens, who enticed sailors to their shores 
by their singing and then devoured them ; the island of 
the enchantress Circe, who changed men into beasts ; of 
Calypso, the sea-nymph ; the Lotus-eaters, who lived on 
the fruit of the Lotus, which brought forgetfulness of all 
care and trouble ; while on the outside round the earth 
ran the mighty River Oceanus. 

In later legends we find the knowledge of geography more 
extensive. The Straits of Gibraltar were known and 
called the Pillars of Heracles, because in his wanderings, 
Heracles (called by the Romans Hercules) set up two 
pillars there to mark the extreme points of Europe and 
Africa. The water beyond the Straits was thought to be 
the Oceanus ; and the word Ocean thus came to be used of 
a large body of water as distinguished from a sea like the 
Mediterranean. 

There is also the legend of the ship Argo, built and 
manned by Jason and his fifty hero - companions, the 
Argonauts (Argo-sailors) ; they sailed from the home of 
the Hellenes in Thessaly, through the Bosphorus, represented 
by floating rocks which dashed together and crushed any 
passing ship, to the land of the Colchians, a mythical nation 
on the eastern shore of the Euxine (Black Sea), and brought 
back the Golden Fleece. This legend, too long to be 
narrated here, shows us that the Greeks were now 
acquainted with the Euxine, probably by trade. 



CHAPTER V 



THE DORIANS 



The Homeric age was brought to an end, and the face 
of Greece almost entirely changed, by the invasion and 
conquest of the Peloponnese by the Dorians, which took 
place not many years after the time usually assigned to 
the Trojan war, and was caused by an uprising of tribes 
in Northern Greece. 

The Dorians, who became one of the greatest divisions 
of the Greek people, were originally one of several small 
tribes dwelling on the slopes of Mount Pindus in the 
country afterwards called Thessaly. Driven thence by 
invaders who came over the mountains from Epirus, and 
who gave their name, Thessalians, to the country, some 
of these tribes wandered away southward. One tribe 
made their way into Bceotia, which they conquered, and 
became the Boeotians ; but two little towns, Platsea and 
Thespise, resisted the invaders and would not acknowledge 
their supremacy, a fact of great importance in the 
subsequent history of Greece. The Dorians founded 
a new settlement in a little nook of territory between 
Mounts (Eta and Parnassus, which ever afterwards 
bore the name of Doris. Here they dwelt for some 
time, but the land was too narrow for them. They again 
pushed southwards, and tried to cross the Isthmus into 
the Peloponnese, but the Achseans of the Peloponnese 
defeatedthem, and slew one of their leaders named Hyllus. 

C 



34 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Undismayed by their failure, the Dorians made a second 
attempt. They formed an alliance with the mountaineers 
of .^tolia, and the combined forces crossed the Corinthian 
Gulf at its narrow entrance. Once across they slowly but 
steadily drove the Achseans back : the first district con- 
quered, the plain of Elis was given to the iEtolians ; the 
Dorians pressed on southwards down the west coast, and, 
though probably only after many years' fighting, Messenia, 
Laconia, and Argolis itself fell into their hands. Leaving 
Arcadia unmolested, owing to its rugged mountains, they 
carried their victorious arms up the east coast to Corinth 
and across the Isthmus against Attica, but they were 
defeated in a battle in which the Athenian king, Codrus, 
is said to havesacrificed his life to gain the victory for his 
people. The Dorian invasion had reached its limit. But 
the Dorians were now lords of the Peloponnese ; the old 
supremacy of the Achaeans had come to an end, and their 
place was taken by a ruder but sturdier tribe. 

This Dorian invasion is the first historic fact of Greek 
history, but it is narrated by Greek writers in the form of 
a legend called the Return of the Heracleidse (or descen- 
dants of Heracles). After the death of Heracles, Eurystheus, 
king of Argos, his rival, for whom he had been obliged to 
perform his famous twelve labours, tried to slay his sons, 
but they fled to Northern Greece. Hyllus, the eldest, took 
refuge with the Dorians, but some say with the Athenians. 
He and his sons made many attempts to gain the throne 
of Argos, but in vain, and Hyllus was killed. At last, in 
the fourth generation, the three brothers, Temenus, Cres- 
phontes, and Aristodemus, having an iEtolian prince as 
their ally, crossed the Corinthian Gulf and conquered the 
Peloponnese. Elis w T as given to the iEtolians, Argolis to 
Temenus, as the eldest, Messenia to Cresphontes, and 
Laconia to Aristodemus. 

The movement did not end with the conquest of the 



THE DORIANS 



35 



Peloponnese ; it took a long time for the disturbance to sub- 
side. First of all, the Achaeans were not all content to 
remain in subjection to the Dorians ; one band invaded the 
southern shore of the Corinthian Gulf, which was inhabited 
by Ionians ; they drove out the Ionians, and established 
themselves in their cities, whence the land obtained the 




THE MIGRATIONS 

name of Achaaa. Another band determined to leave Greece 
altogether and seek new settlements across the ^gean, for 
the Phoenicians, who had hitherto completely ruled the 
sea, had now lost much of their power. Many of the old 
inhabitants of Boeotia joined the movement, and some too 
of the dispossessed tribes of Thessaly ; and so Greek settle- 



36 HISTORY OF GREECE 

merits grew up in the island of Lesbos and the adjoining 
coast of Asia Minor, including the district in which Troy is 
supposed to have been ; these settlements were known as 
the iEolian colonies, or iEolis. 

In the second place, the Ionians, who were driven from 
their homes south of the Corinthian Gulf by the Achseans, 
crowded into Attica in such numbers that the land could 
not support them ; from Attica also therefore there went 
out swarms of emigrants who fixed their settlements in the 
islands and coast south of iEolis, and so founded a new 
Ionia. Most of the Cyclades were thus occupied by the 
Ionians, and the northern half of the Sporades, including 
the islands of Chios and Samos ; on the Asiatic coast they 
founded many famous cities, Smyrna, Ephesus, Miletus, and 
others, twelve in all. 

Thirdly, the Dorian invaders followed the same example 
and occupied the island of iEgma, opposite Athens, and 
then the islands and coast south of the Ionians ; but, with 
the exception of the islands of Crete and Khodes, their 
settlements were of little importance. Thus the whole 
western coast of Asia Minor from the strait which we call 
the Dardanelles, but which the Greeks called the Helles- 
pont, to its southern corner was fringed with Greek cities : 
iEolian in the north, Ionian in the centre, Dorian in the 
south. 

These settlements were only founded gradually in the course 
of many years, and after long struggles with the natives ; 
but of these struggles we have but a scanty record. The 
natives in many cases mingled with their conquerors, and 
thus a new race arose, different in character to the mother- 
country. Herodtitus tells us that the conquerors of Miletus 
forced the native women whose husbands and brothers they 
had slain to become their wives, but the women swore an 
oath that they would never eat with their new husbands or 
call the in by their names. 



THE DORIANS 37 

The Asiatic Greeks grew rapidly in wealth and pro- 
sperity, outstripping even the mother- country ; for no 
danger as yet threatened them from the nations inland. 
Religious unions were formed among them, the most famous 
of which was on the promontory of Mycale, near Ephesus. 
Here the twelve Ionian cities celebrated with pomp and 
splendour a festival in honour of Poseidon, god of the sea, 
and the place was called Pan- Ionium. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE PELOPONNESE AND SPARTA 

Dates. B.C. 

Institutions of Lycurgus, .... 830 
First Messeman War, .... 743-723 
Second Messenian War, .... 650-630 
Sparta, Head of the Peloponnese, . about 550 

Chief Characters. — Lycurgus, Aristodemus, Aristonienes, 
Tyrtaeus. 

Of the history of the Peloponnese in the period following 
the Dorian invasion very little is known. The first state that 
became powerful was Argolis, which gradually extended its 
dominion over all the cities from the Isthmus of Corinth 
to Cape Malea. The city of Argos itself was a Dorian 
settlement. Mycenae, the old capital of the Acha?ans, still 
survived, shorn of its ancient glories, and tributary to 
Argos. At Argos a long line of kings reigned, the mightiest 
of the kings of Greece, as Agamemnon had been in the old 
days : the greatest of them was Pheidon, who is said to have 
introduced weights and measures into Greece. 

Meanwhile the Dorians of Sparta, cooped up in the 
narrow valley of the Eurotas, for a long time could make 
but little way. A few miles to the south of their city 
lay the Achrean city of Amychr, still unconcjuered, 
which for many years was a thorn in their side ; while 
to the north were the mountains of Arcadia. I seemed 
as if Sparta must be content to take a very inferior place 

3S 



THE PELOPONNESE AND SPARTA 



39 



among the states of the' Peloponnese. But about the year 
850 B.C. there arose a prince of one of the royal houses 
named Lycurgus ; he was uncle of one of the kings who 
was an infant, and, having been unjustly accused of aiming 




tlycenaeo Q 
Vlantinea I Q 

oArgos ^,£ 




LACOXIA AND ITS NEIGHBOURS 



at the throne, he was banished. Leaving Sparta, he 
travelled to distant countries, observing their institutions 
and ways of life ; he visited Crete, Egypt, and, it is even 
said, India. On his return he found his country still weak 
and torn by civil dissensions ; and having consulted the 
oracle of Delphi he determined to give the Spartans the 
institutions which he had found existing among the Dorians 
of Crete, who also had found themselves confronted by a 
large hostile population. 

Such is the legendary account of the origin of the famous 
institutions of Sparta ; there seems no reason to doubt the 



40 HISTORY OF GREECE 

existence of a lawgiver named Lycurgus, but the Greeks 
themselves admitted that very little was really known about 
him ; and there is little doubt that he was not the originator 
of all that was ascribed to him. The one object of the 
institutions of Lycurgus was to make the Spartans good 
soldiers, able to hold their own against the Achaean foes 
around them. Sparta became nothing more than a huge 
military camp ; and every Spartan, as long as he could 
bear arms, was a soldier, absolutely under the orders of the 
government, and under strict military discipline. Every 
male infant when born was brought before the elders 
of his tribe, and, if he seemed weakly, he was exposed 
on Mount Taygetus ; if he passed this inspection by the 
elders he was left with his mother till he was seven years 
old. At the age of seven the boy was placed under the 
state instructors with the other boys of his own age. The 
training was most severe ; he went bare-foot and with 
only one garment even in winter ; his food was poor, and 
he was encouraged to increase it by hunting and by 
theft ; if caught thieving he was punished, not for dis- 
honesty, but for want of adroitness. Once in the course 
of his training he underwent the ordeal of being flogged 
before the altar of Artemis, and a prize was given to 
the one who endured longest. So severe was the flogging 
that boys are said to have died under it. He was taught 
to read and write and recite war-songs ; but his tim e was 
mainly occupied in gymnastics and military exercises, and 
in music and choral dances ; once a year at a great festival 
these dances were performed in public. 

At the age of twenty the Spartan became a soldier ; nor his 
meals he joined one of the military messes (<£ao\'noi>) , con- 
sisting each of fifteen members who contributed / their 
share of the expenses ; the fore was plain, one of the (dishes 
being the Spartan broth, the best sauce for which, /as the 
cook told the Syracusan tyrant Dionysius, was hunger^ He 



THE PELOPONNESE AND SPARTA 41 

still had no house of his own but was quartered in the 
barracks. At the age of thirty he became a full citizen. He 
now was allowed to live in his own house, but he still served 
in the army and took his meals at the military mess. Before 
reaching that age every Spartan was expected to marry ; for 
it was his duty to rear up citizens to fight for the state. 
But, until he was of age to have a house, he was still obliged 
to live in the barracks and could only visit his wife by stealth. 
Any Spartan who did not do his duty by marrying at the 
proper age was punished by special marks of dishonour. 

The girls were trained like the boys, though naturally in 
a less severe manner, in gymnastic and athletic exercises, 
that they might become the mothers of good soldiers. The 
Spartan women were much freer in their intercourse with 
men, and had more influence over them, than in any other 
Greek state. Every Spartan mother taught her son that 
his duty was to fight bravely for Sparta, and to die rather 
than submit to defeat. 'Come back,' one is reported to 
have said, c with your shield or on your shield. 5 

The Spartans were not allowed to trade, the only property 
they could possess was land. Lycurgus is said to have, e 
divided the country into lots and given one lot to each 
citizen. Any Spartan who could not pay his share to the 
mess lost his citizenship and became an * Inferior.' There 
were strict laws against luxury, and no money was allowed 
except iron bars. The number of Spartan citizens was never 
more than 10,000 ; and, owing to their exclusiveness, they 
gradually diminished till in 300 B.C. they were only 1000 in 
number. Every Spartan citizen (i.e. those over thirty years) 
was a member of the Assembly or Apella. As in the Homeric 
Agora already described the members could only vote, not 
speak, and it never seems to have had much power. It met 
once a month. The Council or Gerousia (from yepw, old 
man) consisted of twenty-eight Spartans over sixty years of 
age elected for life by the Apella ; it advised the kings 



42 HISTORY OF GREECE 

and prepared measures for the Apella ; at a later period it 
even obtained the power of setting aside unwise decisions of 
the Apella. 

At Sparta, alone of all the Greek states, there were two 
kings ; the reason which Greek tradition gives of this 
strange fact, is that Aristodemus the Heraclid king of 
Sparta left twin sons behind him, and so both were made 
kings. They seem, however, to have been of quite distinct 
families ; and some modern writers think that one family 
was Achaean and the other Dorian, but there is no proof of 
this. Their powers were equal, but in later time they 
became little more than generals ; and all the government 
of the state fell into the hands of five magistrates elected 
annually called Ephors ("Ec/>opot, i.e. overseers). But, 
though they lost their powers, the kings were always treated 
with the greatest respect. 

Besides the Spartans themselves there were two other 
classes of inhabitants of Laconia, the Periceci and the Helots. 
The Periceci (Hep iWoi, dwellers around) were so called 
because they dwelt in the less fertile parts of Laconia round 
the settlement of the Spartans. They had no part in the 
government, but were obliged to serve in the army, which, 
as the number of Spartans decreased, came to be chiefly 
composed of Periceci with Spartans as officers. They 
possessed small farms and occupied themselves with trade 
and other necessary occupations forbidden to the Spartans 
themselves. It is generally supposed that the Periceci were 
in the main the descendants of the old Achrean inhabitants 
who had submitted to the Dorians. 

The Helots were serfs belonging to the state, which 
assigned them to individual citizens. Each Helot had a 
piece of land from which he paid a fixed amount of produce 
to his master ; what was over became his own property. In 
war the Helots attended their master- ;i> servants and also 
served as light troops. They were cruelly treated, and, as 



THE PELOPONNESE AND SPARTA 43 

in later times they became very numerous, the Spartans were 
always afraid of their revolting ; they, therefore, instituted a 
secret police called the Crypteia (Kpwrrcict ; from KpvirTos, 
hidden), composed of young Spartans on the point of joining 
the army, whose duty it was to keep watch on the Helots, 
and slay any particular one who seemed more than ordinarily 
dangerous. The origin of the Helots and of their name is 
obscure. They were probably conquered Achseans who 
were not granted such favourable terms as the Periceci ; 
some writers think that they were the remains of an older 
race who had been serfs of the Achaeans. The name was 
derived by the Greeks from the town Helos on the coast 
near the mouth of the Eurotas, but possibly it only means 
prisoners (from eXeiz>, to capture). 

Hardened by the institutions of Lycurgus into a strong 
military state, the Spartans began to make a steady advance 
and entered upon the career of conquest which raised them 
to the position of the leading state of Greece. They first of 
all took Amyclae and thoroughly conquered the whole valley 
of the Eurotas. This seems to be the period to which the 
origin of the Periceci and Helots may be assigned ; the date 
was about 800 B.C. Next, the Spartans directed their 
attacks against the Messenians, their neighbours on the 
west of Mount Taygetus. The Dorians who settled in 
Messenia finding themselves too weak to effectively crush 
the original inhabitants had left them a certain amount 
of power ; thus they became the weakest of the Dorian 
states, and fell before the rising power of the Spartans. 
There were two Messenian Wars, which lasted about a 
hundred years altogether, the first from 743 to 723 B.C., the 
second from about 650 to 630 B.C. The accounts of these 
wars which have come down to us are entirely untrust- 
worthy ; they were written many years after the events 
described, and were obviously compiled from the legends of 
the Messenians, for they represent them as hardly ever 



44 HISTORY OF GREECE 

defeated ; whereas in both the wars they were at an early 
stage compelled to retire to a mountain stronghold, which 
shows that they were unable to face the Spartans in the 
open field. 

The quarrel between the Spartans and Messenians is said 
to have begun with the death of the Spartan king Teleclus, 
in a temple of Artemis on Mount Taygetus, which was 
common to the two states ; it was intensified by a border 
dispute, in which a Messenian unable to obtain redress from 
Sparta for the robbery of his cattle and murder of his son, 
slew with his own hand every Spartan he met. The 
Spartans then seized a Messenian frontier fort from which 
they ravaged the country far and wide ; the Messenians 
in their turn ravaged Laconia ; then two pitched battles 
were fought which are represented as indecisive, but the 
Messenians were so exhausted that they abandoned all the 
country and retired with their possessions into the mountain 
fortress of Ithome (735 B.C.). Then the oracle of Delphi 
told the Messenians that a royal princess must be offered 
up as a victim ; and Aristodemus, a prince, slew his own 
daughter. This is said to have so alarmed the Spartans 
that for some years they refrained from war. Then there 
was another indecisive battle, but the Messenian king was 
slain, and Aristodemus was elected in his stead. He earned 
on the war with vigour, both sides ravaging one another's 
land. 

After a few years another battle was fought in which 
the Messenians aided by the Arcadians and Argives were 
victorious ; but, nevertheless, discouragement prevailed 
among them, their ranks were thinned by famine, and the 
omens were against them. Aristodemus alarmed by a 
vision of his daughter, who appeared to him with her bleed- 
ing breast, slew himself on her tomb. Finally, the 
Messenians abandoned Ithome, which the Spartans razed 
to the ground. Many fled from the country, those who 



THE PELOPONNESE AND SPARTA 45 

remained had to submit to the cruel terms imposed by the 
conquerors, among other things they were forced to pay 
half the produce of their lands to Sparta (b.c. 723). 

Two generations after the fall of Ithome the Messenians 
rebelled. The hero of the second war was a prince named 
Aristomenes, and he was aided by the Argives and the 
Arcadians ; while the Corinthians came as allies to the 
Spartans. At the outset the valour and deeds of Aristo- 
menes struck terror into the hearts of the Spartans. On 
one occasion he is said to have succeeded in entering Sparta 
itself by night, and to have fastened a shield to the temple 
of Athene, on which was inscribed : ' Dedicated by Aristo- 
menes from the Spartan spoils. 5 The Spartans, not 
knowing what to do, asked advice of the Delphic oracle, 
and were told to ask the Athenians for a leader. The 
Athenians did not really wish to help them, so they sent 
a lame schoolmaster named Tyrtseus ; but Tyrtseus was a 
poet, and wrote warlike songs which inspired the Spartans 
with fresh courage. In spite, however, of the songs of 
Tyrtseus they suffered another defeat from Aristomenes. 
But soon afterwards a great battle was fought in which 
the general of the Arcadians was guilty of treachery, 
and led away his forces, so that the Messenians were 
utterly defeated. So great was their loss that, as in the 
first war, they retired into a mountain stronghold, this 
time named Ira, in the north of Messenia. Now the 
Spartans were again unable to capture the Messenian 
stronghold, and so the war dragged on. The stories of the 
latter years consist mainly of the wonderful exploits of 
Aristomenes, who continued to harass the Spartans by his 
raids into their territories. On one occasion he was cap- 
tured by the Spartans and thrown with the other prisoners 
into a deep pit. He alone reached the bottom alive, and 
lay there for three days waiting for death to end his 
sufferings. But on the third day he saw a fox preying 



46 HISTORY OF GREECE 

on the dead bodies, and concluding that it must have 
entered by some hole, he seized it by the tail and was 
dragged by it in its efforts to escape to the hole through 
which he extricated himself and reappeared at Eira. 

But, in spite of the deeds of Aristomenes, it was a hope- 
less struggle ; the end came at last. Ira was betrayed by 
a Spartan deserter, and the Messenians were forced to 
submit. Aristomenes retired to Ehodes : many of the 
Messenians left their homes and settled in other Greek 
states ; those who remained behind were reduced to the lot 
of Helots, and tilled their lands for their Spartan masters. 
Thus the Spartans conquered Messenia. 

During these years the Spartans had also been trying to 
extend their frontiers northward and eastward. North- 
ward lay the Arcadian state of Tegea, against which they 
fought for a long time unsuccessfully, suffering many 
defeats. In their first invasion they were so confident that 
they took chains with them to bind their prisoners, but 
they were defeated and forced to wear the chains them- 
selves. At last, according to the story, after many years 
they were told by the oracle of Delphi that they would 
conquer Tegea if they brought to Sparta the bones of Orestes, 
the son of Agamemnon, which lay in a spot in Tegea, where 
1 two blasts of wind were forced to blow, where stroke 
answered to stroke, and sorrow lay upon sorrow.' After 
much search the bones of a hero of more than human size 
were found beneath a blacksmith's forge and conveyed to 
Sparta ; then the Spartans prevailed, and Tegea made peace 
with Sparta, acknowledging her supremacy, and was given 
the honour of fighting on the left wing of the Spartan 
army. The peace with Tegea occurred about B.C. 550, 
nearly one hundred years after the conquest of Messenia. 

The land on the east of Laconia was a narrow strip 
between the mountains and the sea called Cynuria 
belonging to Argos. It was mostly a worthless bit of 



THE PELOPONNESE AND SPARTA 47 

territory, but the Spartans coveted it, because its conquest 
would, with Messenia, give them the whole south of the 
Peloponnese from sea to sea. So the Spartans and Argives 
became enemies, and long wars were fought for the posses- 
sion of Cynuria, of which very little is known. By about 
700 B.C. the Spartans seem to have gained possession of it, 
and the Argives now fought to win it back again. After 
the end of the first Messenian war, the Argives won a great 
victory over the Spartans, which encouraged the Mes- 
senians to renew the war ; but the power of Argos was 
declining, for Corinth and other towns were pressing her 
hard in the north, and she did little to help the Mes- 
senians in their last struggle. The quarrel between Sparta 
and Argos still went on for many years, and at last it was 
determined to settle the dispute by a combat of 300 
champions from each side. The champions fought with 
the utmost valour, and by the end of the day two Argives 
and one Spartan, named Othryades, alone survived. The 
Argives imagining themselves victorious returned home, but 
Othryades remained and stripped the bodies of his fallen 
foes : both sides, therefore, claimed the victory, and, as 
they could not agree, a battle ensued in which the 
Spartans were victorious, and so retained Cynuria (about 
b.c. 550). 

Victorious over the Messenians, Tegeans, and Argives, 
Sparta was now the foremost state in Greece : she had 
risen step by step from the weak condition in which 
Lycurgus found her, and, strengthened by his institutions, 
had proved her superiority to her neighbours, and had 
seized the position, formerly held by Argos, of the head 
state of the Peloponnese. This position Argos from time 
to time attempted to regain, but without success ; she 
never acknowledged the supremacy of Sparta, and remained 
her bitter enemy to the last. 



CHAPTEE VII 



THE 


COLONIES 






Dates. 


B.C. 


Cumae founded, 




about 900 (?) 


Syracuse founded, . 




. 7U 


Tarentum founded, . 




. 707 


Corcyra founded, 




705 


Byzantium founded, 




. 658 


Agrigentum founded, 




. 580 


Destruction of Sybaris by Croton, 


. 510 



The ancient Greeks were, like the Phoenicians, great 
colonisers. An account has already been given of the 
emigration to the coasts of Asia Minor in the pre-historic 
times following the Dorian invasion of the Peloponnese ; but 
at a later time, beginning about 750 B.C., a second period 
of emigration set in, and colonies were sent out further 
afield to many parts of the Mediterranean. These colonies 
were not founded wholly as trading posts like those of 
the Phoenicians, nor by tribes driven out of their original 
settlements by invaders, as was the case with the Ionian 
and iEolian colonies. They were due to the restless spirit 
of enterprise so strong in the Greeks, to the over-pressure of 
population, and often to the violent party struggles by which 
many Greek states were torn, the two parties finding it 
impossible to live in concord within the same city walls. 

One reason of this sudden activity of the Greeks in 
colonisation may be found in the fact that about this 



THE COLONIES 49 

time the power of the Phoenicians in the eastern part 
of the Mediterranean was declining owing to the subjuga- 
tion of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon ; while 
Carthage, the chief Phoenician colony in the west, had not 
yet attained to the great power which it afterwards exer- 
cised. The Greeks were stepping into the place of the 
Phoenicians ; their sailors were voyaging further and further 
afield, and distant lands were becoming more and more 
familiar to them, with the advantages which they offered 
for settlement. 

: It is interesting to observe that from this time a fixed 
method of procedure prevailed among the Greeks for send- 
ing out a colony. The 'mother-city 5 (fxrjTpo7ro\is), as it 
was called, before fixing on the locality for its colony, almost 
invariably asked the advice of the oracle of Delphi. Then 
a Founder or Oekist (OIklo-ttjs) was selected from the leading 
men of the city to superintend the enterprise and direct 
the new community until a settled government was set up. 
Finally, after religious ceremonies to invoke the blessing of 
heaven on their settlement, the colonists sailed away, carry- 
ing with them some of the sacred fire from the public 
hearth, to preserve the old home worship in their new sur- 
roundings. The colony thus founded became entirely self- 
governing and independent, the only tie which bound it to 
the mother-city being that of religion and sentiment ; it 
was usual for a colony which wished itself to found another 
colony to send to the mother-city for the Oekist, and repre- 
sentatives were also sent to attend the festivals of the 
mother- city. But this tie was a very slight one ; the 
distances were so great that communication was very 
difficult. The colonies for the most part lived a life of 
their own, with little thought as to what was happening 
in Greece, unless it concerned their own interests. In 
times of danger we hear little of any aid coming to Greece 
from her colonies. 



So 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



The position selected for a colony was usually on the 
coast, for the sea was the natural highway of communica- 
tion. It would have, of course, a harbour of some sort, and, 
if possible^ a hill to serve as a citadel ('A/cpo7roXt?) for pro- 
tection against the natives. 

Southern Italy and Sicily were the countries chiefly 
colonised in the West, both about the same time. They 
were at that time inhabited by barbarian tribes : in Sicily 




COLONIES IX ITALY AND SICILY 

dwelt the Sicels and Sicani, in Southern Italy the aboriginal 

inhabitants, driven thither by the Latins and their 
kinsmen, the Samnites and Lucanians. The Greek colonists 
were called Siceliots and Italiots. In Italy they stretched 
along the south and west coasts from Tarentum to Comae ; 
in Sicily they were along all the coasts, except at the 
extreme west end. 



THE COLONIES 51 

The earliest colony was Cumse, on the west coast of Italy, 
north of the Bay of Naples. It was founded by Chalcis, 
in Eubcea, one of the most active colonising states, aided by 
settlers from the iEolian city, Cumse, or Cyme, in Asia 
Minor. Tradition .places its foundation before the Trojan 
war ! Its date was certainly very early, two or three 
hundred years before the general tide of colonisation 
began ; though how, at such a t time, a colony came to be 
planted in so distant a spot, cannot, with our present 
knowledge, be explained. 

The most important of the other colonies in Italy were 
Sybaris (b.c. 720) and Croton (b.c. 710), both founded by 
the Achaeans of the Peloponnese, on the western side of the 
Gulf of Tarentum ; Ehegium, on the Straits of Messina 
(b.c. 715), founded by Chalcis, which, having devoted one- 
tenth of its inhabitants to Apollo in consequence of a 
famine, is said to have sent them thither as settlers, together 
with refugees from Messenia after the first war, and 
Tarentum (b.c. 707), the best harbour in the gulf, to which 
it afterwards gave its name, the solitary colony sent out by 
Sparta. The story of this colony is as follows : — During 
the latter years of the First Messenian War the Spartan 
warriors bound themselves by an oath not to return home 
until the war was over ; during their long absence the 
Spartan women contracted alliances with Periceci and others 
of inferior citizenship. The offspring of these alliances, 
when they grew up, were not permitted by the Spartans to 
have the rank of citizens, whereupon they made a con- 
spiracy to overthrow the government. The conspiracy was 
discovered ; but the Spartans, instead of punishing the 
authors, sent them away with their leader as oekist, and 
they seized Tarentum, already a town of some size. 

These colonies, in their turn, sent out others, and the 
number of Greek cities fringing the south-west shore of 
Italy, as far north as Cuinse, was so great that the district 



52 HISTORY OF GREECE 

received the name of Great Hellas, or, as the Romans called 
it, Magna Graecia. The natives were subdued, and the 
settlements grew with wonderful rapidity, far outstripping 
in size and prosperity their parent states in Greece. Sybaris 
and Croton brought many of the native tribes under their 
sway, and ruled large tracts of country. The walls of 
Croton were twelve miles in circumference, those of Sybaris 
six ; in the religious festivals of Sybaris 500 knights, splen- 
didly attired, used to ride in procession. But prosperity 
bred luxury and indulgence, especially at Sybaris, and the 
name Sybarite has ever since been proverbial. 

In the year B.C. 510 the two cities quarrelled and went 
to war. Sybaris is said to have put 300,000 men into the 
field, Croton 100,000, numbers which must have been enor- 
mously exaggerated. The Sybarites were routed, and their 
city destroyed ; but disunion proved fatal to the Italiot 
Greeks : their power and prosperity began to decline ; and 
the Lucanians, more powerful than the natives whom they 
had conquered, began to push down south and attack them. 
Tarentum, formerly inferior to Sybaris and Croton, now 
became the most powerful of the Italian colonies. Owing 
to its unrivalled harbour, its commerce grew and flourished. 
It fought long wars with the Lucanians and the Samnites, 
and only succumbed to the irresistible power of Home 
(b.c. 275). 

In Sicily the most important colonies were Naxos, on the 
east coast, founded by Chalcis (b.c. 735) ; Syracuse, further 
south, founded by Corinth (b.c. 734) ; on the south coast. 
Gela, founded by the islands of Rhodes and Crete (b.c. 690), 
which, in its turn, founded Agrigentum (Greek Akraga*, 
b.c. 580) ; and, on the Straits of Messina, opposite Ehegium, 
Zancle, founded by Chalcis and settlers from Cumoe (b.c. 
728), which founded Him£ra, on the north coast (b.c. 648). 
Zancle was afterwards seized by Ehegium and some Mes- 
senian exiles, and its name changed to Messene or Messana. 



THE COLONIES 53 

In Sicily, as in Italy, the natives were easily conquered, 
and the whole east of the island became Greek. Syracuse, 
with its strong position on the shore of a land-locked 
harbour, was the leading state, and Gela was the second, 
until it was eclipsed by its own colony, Agrigentum. There 
were, however, Phoenician colonies in the west of the island ; 
and the great Phoenician colony in Africa, Carthage, was 
fast rising in power. Carthage was so near Sicily that she 
could bring all her forces against the Greeks ; many terrible 
wars were fought with varying fortune ; in the end both 
Carthaginians and Greeks fell, like the Italian colonies, 
before the power of Rome (b.c. 242). Thus the Sicilian 
colonies did not prosper so rapidly as the Italian ; but they 
retained their power longer, and had, as we shall see, a 
more important influence on Greek history. 

Three isolated colonies lay in other parts of the Medi- 
terranean. The inhabitants of Phocsea on the Asiatic coast 
of the iEgean, driven from their homes by the rising power 
of the neighbouring Lydians, founded Massilia (Marseilles) 
in South Gaul, B.C. 600. Massilia, secure in its distant site 
from the interference of other nations, had a peaceful 
and prosperous career and founded colonies on the coast of 
Spain. On the coast of Africa, west of Egypt, Cyrene was 
founded by the Island of Thera (b.c. 630), and in Egypt 
itself on the western mouth of the Nile was Naucratis, 
given to the Greeks by King Amasis (about b.c. 570) as a 
trading station ; it was colonised mainly by Miletus and 
other Asiatic cities. 

We now come to the Greek colonies near home. On the 
the west coast of Epirus above Greece itself, Corinth 
founded a colony in the island of Corcyra (b.c. 705), and 
afterwards Corinth in conjunction with Corcyra founded 
other colonies on the islands and mainland in the neigh- 
bourhood, the most notable of which were Ambracia and 
Epidamnus. Corcyra became one of the most famous 



54 HISTORY OF GREECE 

commercial states of antiquity, rivalling its mother- city 
Corinth ; it was also notorious for its bad relations with its 
mother-city, with which it fought the first recorded sea-fight 
in Greek history (b.c. 664), and later for the unbridled 
ferocity of its political dissensions. 

On the East on the borders of Macedonia and Thrace a 
number of colonies were founded by Chalcis, aided by 
Eretria, on the three-pronged peninsula, which in conse- 
quence took the name of Chalcidice. They were about 
thirty in number, mostly small towns, and never attained 
the prosperity of the Italian and Sicilian colonies. Potidaea 
and Olynthus were the most famous. 

Eastward of Chalcidice the whole coast was fringed with 
colonies, including the whole circuit of the Euxine (Black 
Sea). Most of these came from Miletus, which is said to 
have founded eighty in the Euxine, including Cyzicus in 
the Propontis (Sea of Marmora) B.C. 756, Sinope (about 
b.c. 720) with its colony Trapezus (Trebizond) on the 
southern coast of the Black Sea. Megara also founded 
Chalcedon (b.c. 675) and Byzantium (b.c. 658), the first on 
the south and the second on the north side of the Bosphorus. 
Byzantium, owing to its magnificent harbour, became the 
greatest of the Eastern colonies, in later ages it was 
selected by the Eoman Emperor Constantine the Great 
as the capital of the Eastern Empire and so obtained its 
modern name Constantinople. 

The colonies in Thrace and on the Euxine never at- 
tained the prosperity and importance of those in Sicily and 
Italy. Owing to their situation the fortunes of those of 
them that were of any importance were so closely con- 
nected with the history of Greece itself that there is no 
need to give a separate description of them. 

The fate of the original iEolian, Ionian, and Dorian settle- 
ments on the coast of Asia Minor, however, demands a par- 
ticular mention. We have seen how powerful and prosperous 



THE COLONIES 55 

they were for the first centuries after their founding (p. 37). 
But, like the colonies of Magna Graecia, they never learnt to 
unite for mutual protection, for there seemed little danger 
of attack from the barbarians inland ; secure and prosperous, 
they became enervated by luxury, and by marriages with the 
natives. But, about the year B.C. 685, a usurper named G-yges 
seized the throne of the neighbouring kingdom of Lydia the 
capital of which was Sardis, about sixty miles from Ephesus. 
He was an energetic monarch and at once set to work to en- 
large his dominions by attacking the Greek cities, many of 
which he took. His successors continued the same policy, 
and the greatest and last of them, Croesus, who ascended 
the throne B.C. 560, captured Ephesus, and gradually all 
the cities submitted and agreed to pay tribute. Croesus 
was no barbarian, but an admirer of the Greeks, and 
under his rule they had little to complain of except the 
loss of independence. Besides the Greeks Croesus brought 
under his sway all Asia Minor west of the Eiver Halys, 
and became famous for his wealth and power ; but a sad 
fate was in store for him, a fate which had the most momen- 
tous effect on the history of the Greeks both in Asia and 
Greece itself. This, however, belongs to a later chapter. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE TYRANTS, B.C. 700-500 

It has been already pointed out in a previous chapter 
that in the early days of Greek history the different 
states were ruled by kings. In the course of time this 
government by kings or ' monarchy' (fiovos, alone and 
«PX<S0, I rule) came to an end except in Sparta, where, as 
we have seen, the kings were reduced to the position of 
mere generals of the army, and in half-barbarian states such 
as Macedonia. In what particular ways monarchy came to 
an end in Greece we do not know, though in the case of 
Athens there is a legend on the subject which will be 
narrated in the next chapter. It seems that the Greek 
states were so small that they did not feel the want of a 
single head, and the kings were unable to maintain that 
state of a great court which would keep them in a position 
of superiority to their subjects and especially to the leading 
noble families ; and the Greeks, with their inborn love of 
independence and equality, could not endure to have a 
single man set over them. 

So by the beginning of the seventh century B.C., mon- 
archy had died out and the government, instead of being 
in the hands of one man, was now in the hands of 
the nobles, sometimes of a single family, sometimes of 
the whole body. This form of government is called 
1 aristocracy ' (rtpioror, best ; Kparos, power) or ' oligarchy ' 
(oXiyo?, few). But the change did not bring relief to 



THE TYRANTS, B.C. 700-500 57 

the mass of the people, who only exchanged one master 
for many and had more chance of fair treatment from 
a single king than from a combination of noble families ; 
for which reason it seems probable that the kings were 
driven out more by the nobles than the people. The 
people wished to get the power into their own hands ; 
that is, to have not an aristocracy but a 'democracy 5 or 
government by the people (from &7/Z0?, the people). Thus 
the downfall of the kings was the beginning of strife be- 
tween the nobles and the people, a strife that in some 
Greek states lasted almost to the end of Greek history, and 
was often fraught with the greatest bitterness and blood- 
shed. 

It was this political strife that was the cause of many of 
the colonies being sent out as has been mentioned ; and it 
is interesting to notice that Athens, where the struggle 
though bitter did not go to such lengths as in some 
other states, sent out no colonies, and so reserved her 
strength for her future great career. Athens, as will be 
seen, became gradually step by step more democratic in 
her government, and came to be regarded as the champion 
of democracy throughout Greece, while Sparta, with its 
aristocratic government, was the champion of aristocracy ; 
this fact is very important to remember, for it was one of 
the causes of the great struggle between Athens and Sparta, 
which is the central point of Greek history. 

Now, during the first two centuries after the expulsion 
of the kings, it happened in many states that some man, 
taking advantage of the state of political strife and unrest, 
succeeded in overthrowing the government and usurping 
supreme power. Sometimes the usurper was an ambitious 
member of some noble family, sometimes a man of the 
people, who won his position by overthrowing the oppressive 
rule of the nobles ; sometimes he was a mere adventurer, who 
hired mercenaries and seized the supreme power by force. 



58 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Such usurpers were not called by the Greeks kings, for 
the kings had ruled by right, but ' Tyrants ' (rvpavvoi). It 
must be clearly understood, however, that the name did not 
mean what it means nowadays — that is, a cruel and oppres- 
sive ruler, but simply a man who seizes the power to which 
he has no right, as Cromwell did in England ; in one word, 
a usurper. The Greeks, except perhaps the lowest classes, 
hated these upstart rulers far more bitterly than the old 
kings ; even to slay one was held to be a glorious act ; and 
while many were really cruel tyrants, even the best had 
probably to commit occasionally harsh and unjustifiable 
acts in self-defence, in order to preserve their position ; 
hence arose the modern meaning of the word ' tyrant.' 

Most of the tyrants, even the worst, promoted the 
wealth and prosperity of the states which they governed 
by their firm and energetic rule ; and, generally, they 
favoured arts and literature and beautified their cities with 
splendid buildings, with the object both of increasing their 
own fame and occupying the minds of their subjects. In 
some cases they were so successful in firmly establishing 
their power as to be able to hand it down to their sons ; 
but in no single case did a tyrant found a permanent 
dynasty. The result of the rule of the tyrants was more 
favourable to democracy than aristocracy ; for^duringltheir 
rule both nobles and people were kept equally in subjection, 
so that after their expulsion it was difficult to the nobles to 
claim all the power again for themselves. Sparta, with her 
settled government, was the chief foe of the tyrants, and was 
ever ready to lend her forces to aid in expelling them. 

So many cities at this time fell under the sway of tyrants, 
not only in Greece itself, but also in the colonies where 
there had never been any kings, that the years from b.c. 700 
to 500 have been called the Age of the Tyrants. But even 
after that time there were occasional tyrants in some of the 
colonies. The most famous of the tyrants was Peisistratus 



THE TYRANTS, B.C. 700-500 59 

of Athens, whose career will be narrated in the next 
chapter ; other notable tyrants were Cleisthenes of Sicyon, 
Cypselus and Periander of Corinth, Polycrates of Sainos, 
and Phalaris of Agrigentum. 

Cleisthenes was the last of the longest line of tyrants that 
reigned in any Greek city ; for the power was first seized 
by his great-grandfather, Orthagoras, about B.C. 670. 
Sicyon contained chiefly an Ionic population, but the nobles 
were Dorians, and acknowledged allegiance to the great 
Dorian state of Argos. Orthagoras seems to have been an 
Ionian, and to have been supported by the Ionian lower 
orders against the Dorian nobles ; for which reason his 
family were the most popular of all the tyrants, and are 
said to have needed no bodyguard. 

Cleisthenes became tyrant about B.C. 600. He freed his 
country from Argos, which at this time, as has been seen 
(p. 47), was declining before the rising power of Sparta ; 
and to weaken and degrade the Dorian nobles at Sicyon, 
he changed the names of the three Dorian tribes to words 
derived from the ass, the pig, and the boar ; he also won 
himself a great name in Greece by his victories in the 
Pythian and Olympic Games (see page 19), and by taking 
a prominent part in the First Sacred War (see p. 21). He 
died about b.c. 570, and after his death the Dorians again 
recovered their power in Sicyon. Cleisthenes had no son 
to succeed him, and only one daughter, Agariste, about 
whose marriage Herodotus tells the following story : — He 
invited suitors from all the states of Greece to stay with 
him for a year, that he might select one for a son-in-law. 
Numbers came ; and, after considering the birth, beauty, 
wealth, wit, and personal prowess of all the candidates, 
Cleisthenes inclined towards two Athenians, Hippocleides 
and Megacles. At length the clay of the decision arrived, 
and all the suitors were entertained at a splendid banquet, 
at which they vied with one another in music and song ; 



6o HISTORY OF GREECE 

at last Hippocleides summoned a flute-player and began 
to dance, and ended his performance by standing on his 
head. Cleisthenes in disgust exclaimed, 'You have 
danced away your marriage ' ; and Hippocleides rejoined, 
'Hippocleides does not care, 5 which words became a pro- 
verb in Greece. But Agariste was given to Megacles, 
whom we shall meet again in the history of Athens. 

Cypselus, tyrant of .Corinth, is said to have owed his 
names to the circumstances of his birth. His mother 
belonged to the noble family of the Bacchiadae, who at that 
time governed Corinth, but married a man of the people. 
An oracle having said that her child would free Corinth 
from the Bacchiadae, they sent men to kill him, but his 
mother hid him in a chest (Kvy^fKrj), so his life was saved, 
and he was called Cypselus (Kyyf/eXos). Whatever truth 
there is in the story, there is no doubt that he was a 
Bacchiad, and by the support of the people made himself 
tyrant (b.c. 655) and overthrew the Bacchiadae. For thirty 
years he reigned as tyrant ; he completely broke up the 
power of the oligarchs, and greatly increased the power 
and prosperity of Corinth, which had lately been worsted 
in a struggle with her colony, Corcyra (see p. 54). So 
popular was he with the people, that, like Cleisthenes, he is 
said to have needed no bodyguard. In B.C. 625 he died, 
and was succeeded by his son, Periander. Periander was 
an able and vigorous ruler ; he reconquered Corcyra, and 
made Corinth more powerful than even under his father. 
But at home, if we are to believe the stories, though a great 
patron of art and literature, he ruled with ruthless severity, 
treating the people as harshly as the nobles, so that he was 
obliged to protect himself with a guard of foreign mer- 
cenaries, and the city swarmed with his spies. On one 
occasion he is said to have sent an envoy to Thrasybulus, 
tyrant of Miletus, to ask how he could best secure his 
power. Thrasybulus made no reply to the question, but 



THE TYRANTS, B.C. 700-500 61 

took the envoy a walk through a cornfield, where he 
knocked off with his stick the tallest ears of corn. When 
the envoy returned and told Periander what had happened, 
he understood the meaning of the advice, and carried it 
out by putting to death any prominent citizen who seemed 
dangerous. 

He was equally cruel in his private life ; for he caused 
the death of his wife Melissa, and so incurred the hostility 
of his son Lycophron, whom he sent away as tyrant to 
Corcyra. At the end of his life, however, he wished to 
secure the succession to Lycophron and asked him to return 
to Corinth ; but he refused to come while his father was 
there : then Periander said, that if he would come to 
Corinth, he himself would go to Corcyra ; Lycophron 
consented to this arrangement, but the Corcyrseans killed 
him, for they dreaded the arrival of Periander. So 
Periander was succeeded on his death (b.c. 585) by a half 
nephew, who after three years was assassinated ; and the 
tyranny at Corinth came to an end. The oligarchs 
regained their power, for the cruelties of Periander had 
caused a revulsion of feeling ; but Corinth was never again 
so powerful. 



CHAPTEK IX 

EARLY HISTORY OF ATHENS *. SOLON 

Dates. B.C. 

Establishment of Archons, .... 683 
Conspiracy of Cylon, .... about 630 

Draco, 624 

Eeforms of Solon, 594 

It is strange that in the early times we hear but little of 
Athens. In the Homeric poems, as has been stated, the 
Athenians are hardly mentioned ; also in the great age of 
colonisation, not a single colony is recorded to have been 
sent out by them. 

But the Athenians were intensely proud of their country ; 
they boasted, as has been already mentioned, that they were 
natives of the soil, and that their land, l the oldest home of 
the ancient Ionian race ' as one poet sang, had never, like 
the other parts of Greece, fallen under the yoke of an 
invader. Whatever changes of population there had been at 
Athens were so shrouded in the mists of antiquity as to 
have been quite forgotten. It was known, however, that 
the different little towns of Attica had in very ancient times 
been separate states ; the greatest of them next to Athens 
was Eleusis, the sacred city of the goddess Demeter, and 
between Athens and Eleusis there had often been war. 

In time an end came to this state of things ; Attica was 
welded together into a single state with Athens as its 
capital, the other cities becoming mere country towns ; 

62 



EARL Y HIS TOR Y OF A THENS : SOLON 63 

how this was brought about we cannot say ; the legends 
ascribe it to the great hero-king Theseus, who is supposed 
to have lived before the Trojan war. The Athenians 
of old days were not sailors as in the days of Athenian 
greatness ; they were mainly husbandmen tilling the not 
very productive soil; what it was that caused them to 
change their mode of life and become sailors we shall see 
later on. Athens itself was a walled city about four miles 
from the sea, clustering round the hill on which was the 
citadel (Acropolis). 

The earliest division of the people was into four tribes, 
into which all Ionians are said to have been divided, the 
names being taken originally from professions ; these were 
the Hoplltes (soldiers), Argadeis (artisans), iEgicoreis 
(husbandmen or shepherds), and Geleontes, the meaning of 
which is doubtful. Every true Athenian belonged by birth 
to one of these tribes, which were subdivided into further 
divisions, and had each its own worship. There was also 
a later division into three classes : Eupatridse (nobles), 
Georuori (husbandmen), and Demiurgi (artisans). The 
government consisted, as in other states, of a king, council, 
and assembly ; the council at Athens was called the 
Areopagus because it met on the hill (wayos) of Ares, the god 
of war. The assembly of the people was called, at least in 
later times, the Ecclesia ; in these days it seems to have 
had no power at all. In the course of time changes were 
gradually made until at last the power was entirely in the 
hands of the people, and government was a simple 
democracy. The main course of these changes is easy to 
follow ; but owing to the disagreement of the Greek writers 
themselves, who wrote many years after the events which 
they record, it is impossible to be certain about some of the 
details. The first change was the one which we found 
occurring almost universally in Greece, the abolition of the 
Monarchy. One account is that when the king, Codrus, 



64 HISTORY OF GREECE 

was slain in repelling the Dorian invaders (see p. 34), 
the Athenians said that there was no one worthy to 
succeed him, and resolved that there should be no more 
kings, and elected instead an Archon or Kuler (from ap^co, 
I rule). 1 

Whatever was the real cause of the change, the Archon- 
ship seems to have been at first held for life by a member of 
the family of Codrus ; many years afterwards it was limited 
to ten years ; then it was thrown open to all the Eupatridse ; 
finally (b.c. 683), instead of one Archon holding office for 
ten years, nine Archons were established ruling for one year 
only. There were three chief Archons, by whom the 
government was chiefly carried on : the head Archon or 
Archon Eponymus (6Vo/xa, a name), so called because he 
gave his name to the year, for the Athenian custom was to 
date the years by the Archon, as the Romans did by the 
Consuls ; the King Archon (Bao-iXevs), whose duty it was 
to look after religious matters, for in former times the king 
had been the head of religion : and the Polemarch (TrdAe/xos-, 
war, and apxco) who was commander-in-chief of the army. 
To these were added six inferior Archons called Thesmo- 
thetce, law-givers (Oeo-pos, law ; TiOrjfii, I place), who were 
judges in ordinary cases. The Areopagus was composed of 
men who had been Archons ; it elected the Archons, 
superintended their administration of the state, and judged 
cases of homicide. 

At this time all the power was in the hands of the 

1 Within the last few years a treatise on the Constitution of 
Athens, ascribed, but without absolute certainty, to the great 
philosopher Aristotle, which gives a new version of some rather 
important points, has been discovered in Egypt written on 
papyrus, and is the property of the British Museum. Scholars 
have not yet arrived at a definite conclusion as to the value to 
be attached to this treatise ; those statements only, therefore, 
which are not in direct contradiction to the generally received 
account have been followed in this history. 



EARL Y HIS TOR Y OF A THENS : SOL ON 65 

Eupatridse, for they alone could be Archons ; thus the 
Archonship and the Areopagus were entirely in their hands, 
and they often used their power to harshly oppress the 
people. There was, therefore, bitter discontent among the 
people who wished to obtain political rights ; many of them 
also, tillers of the more barren parts of Attica, were in 
great poverty and even debt. The laws, too, were un- 
written, so that the people were never sure of getting 
justice, as the judges being nobles could always pretend 
that the laws were on their side. 

In the year B.C. 632, a noble named Cylon took ad- 
vantage of this state of discontent to try to make him- 
self 'tyrant.' He had married a daughter of Theagenes, 
tyrant of Megara, whose example no doubt he wished to imi- 
tate, and had won great glory by a victory at the Olympic 
Games (b.c. 640). So having gained over some adherents 
and obtained soldiers from Theagenes he suddenly seized 
the Acropolis, but the Athenians, instead of submitting, 
besieged them there and reduced them to starvation. 
The Archon Megacles, who commanded the besiegers, pro- 
mised them their lives if they would surrender, but as they 
were being led away slew them, some even on the steps of 
an altar to which they clung for protection ; Cylon himself, 
according to one account, escaped before the surrender. 
Thus the first attempt to establish a tyranny at Athens 
failed, because the people were against it ; but they were 
very angry with the nobles on account of the impious act 
of Megacles in slaying men on an altar ; at last one of the 
nobles named Solon persuaded the Alcmseonidae, the family 
to which Megacles belonged, to submit to trial, and the 
whole family was obliged to go into banishment. Long 
afterwards we shall find the guilt of this act still clinging 
to the family and made use of by their enemies and the 
enemies of Athens. 

An attempt was now made to put an end to the political 
E 



66 HISTORY OF GREECE 

strife, and one of the Archons named Draco was ordered 
to draw up and publish a code of the laws, according to 
which the judges would be obliged to judge (b.c. 624). So 
severe were these laws, death being the penalty for nearly 
every crime, that Draco's name has become proverbial for 
severity, and a Greek of later time described his laws as 
written in blood. But Draco did not invent the laws ; 
he merely published those already existing, and being 
once published they could, if necessary, be altered. So 
Draco did great service to Athens as the first law-giver. 
He is also said to have instituted a special tribunal to 
try cases of homicide instead of the Areopagus. 

But the troubles were not over at Athens. There was a 
war against Megara which under its tyrant Theagenes had 
become very strong. The object of the war was the pos- 
session of the island of Salamis, and Theagenes doubtless 
was eager to avenge the fate of his son-in-law Cylon. So 
continually unsuccessful were the Athenians that at last 
they passed a law that no one should propose to recover 
Salamis on pain of death. But Solon, pretending to be mad, 
rushed into the market-place and recited a poem calling the 
Athenians to fresh efforts ; whereupon the Athenians re- 
newed the war and, under the leadership of Solon, took 
Salamis ; but they lost it again and the war seemed end- 
less. And now a vague superstitious terror seized the 
Athenians who believed that the guilt of the Alcmseonidaj 
was still the cause of their troubles ; so they asked advice 
of the Delphic oracle, which told them to send for Epi- 
menides, the sage and prophet of Crete, that he might 
purify the city. Epimenides came and by sacrifices and 
other means purified the city, and also taught the Athenians 
to conduct the worship of the gods in a better way. Having 
allayed the religious excitement Epimenides went back to 
Crete taking no reward but a branch of the olive tree in the 
Acropolis sacred to Athene. 



EARL Y HISTOR Y OF A THENS : SOLON 67 

Soon afterwards the war with Megara came to a close ; 
both sides appealed to Sparta to decide the dispute, thus 
acknowledging her position as the head of Greece. Sparta 
decided in favour of Athens ; and there is a tradition that 
the decision was influenced by a device of Solon, who 
appealed to two lines of the Iliad, one of which he had 
made up himself, describing how Ajax, king of Salamis, 
ranged his ships by the side of the Athenians. 

The laws of Draco had not wholly succeeded in allaying 
the political strife. * The Athenians at this time were split 
into three factions called the Plain-men (Ilefoeis), the Shore- 
men (IlapaXioi), the Hill-men (AiaKptot). The Plain-men 
were the wealthy nobles who held all the best land, the 
Hill-men were the poorest people who tilled the barren 
hill-sides, the Shore-men were the middle class, merchants 
and fishermen. The Hill-men wanted to overthrow the 
power of the nobles and get the government into their 
hands ; the Shore-men also wanted to get some of the power 
from the nobles ; but they were against the Hill-men, for 
they did not want revolution and anarchy. 

But the most pressing danger came from the state of debt 
into which the poorer cultivators, the faction of the Hill- 
men, had fallen. Many of them owing to bad times had 
borrowed money from the nobles, for which they had to 
pay large sums as interest out of the yearly produce of 
their farms ; some had borrowed this money on the security 
of their farms, others on the security of their persons ; that 
is, if the former could not pay the interest, their creditors 
could take their farms, while if the latter could not do so, 
their creditors could sell them into slavery. Such a state 
of things could not be allowed to continue, and in b.c. 
594 Solon, who was trusted and respected by all parties, 
was appointed Archon with full powers to put a stop to 
it by any means he chose. He decreed that all debts on 
land or personal freedom were cancelled ; this measure was 



68 HISTORY OF GREECE 

known as the Seisachtheia or { shaking off of burdens ' (crelco, 
shake, and ax^os, a burden) ; it seems to us grossly unfair, 
for the creditors lost all the money they had lent ; but 
according to the story, though there was dissatisfaction at 
first, all classes soon had reason to be grateful to Solon. 
The debtors were started afresh in possession of their 
lands, and for the future it was forbidden to borrow money 
on land or personal freedom. Never afterwards was there 
such danger from debt at Athens. 

So pleased were the Athenians with the Seisachtheia 
that they made Solon Archon again the next year, in 
order that he might try to put an end also to the political 
factions by making changes in the government. To effect 
this, his plan was to give some power to the people without 
depriving the rich and the nobles of all their influence. 

He divided all the citizens, rich and poor, into four 
classes according to their property (perhaps these classes 
were already existing for military purposes). The first 
class were called the Pentacosiomedimni, five hundred- 
bushel men (/xefo/xi/os, a bushel), they had an income equal 
to 500 bushels of wheat (about ,£20) and upwards. The 
second were the Knights, whose income lay between 300 
and 500 bushels ; they were so called because they could 
afford to keep a horse. The third, the Zeugltae, yoke-of- 
oxen men (feOyos, a yoke), whose income was from 200 to 
300 bushels, sufficient for them to possess a yoke of oxen ; 
the fourth, the Thetes, whose income was below 200 bushels. 
In the army the first two classes formed the officers and 
the cavalry, the Zeugitae were the heavy-armed infantry, 
the Thetes the light-armed. 

In Solon's scheme all the four classes had votes and 
belonged to the Assembly (Ecclesia), which now was to have 
real power, such as (1) electing the magistrates ; (2) punish- 
ing them on their resignation if their conduct in office had 
been unsatisfactory ; (3) generally controlling the govern- 



EARLY HISTORY OF ATHENS: SOLON 69 

ment ; and (4) those over thirty formed a law court, 
afterwards called the Heliaea, to which people could appeal 
from the decisions of the Archons. 

The Ecclesia, being composed of all the citizens, was too 
unwieldy and too inexperienced to be left uncontrolled, 
and the existing council, the Areopagus, was composed of 
nobles ; so Solon made a new council called the Boule, 
whose duty it was to prepare business for the Ecclesia, so 
that the general administration of the state was practically 
in its hands. It was composed of 400 members, 100 from 
each of the Ionic tribes (see p. 63). At the same time 
Solon did not abolish the Areopagus ; he made it again the 
law court for cases of homicide, instead of Draco's court, 
and gave it general supervision over the morals and conduct 
of the citizens. The Boule and inferior magistracies were 
probably open to the first three classes, the Archonship to 
the first only ; and at the end of their year of office, all 
magistrates had to pass a public examination in their 
conduct of their office. 

By this scheme Solon hoped to have given the people 
sufficient power to satisfy them, without depriving the 
wealthy and noble of their proper influence. As he dis- 
tributed the power according to the wealth of the different 
classes his constitution is known as Timocracy (tl/jlt), 
rating). 

Solon also made several laws relating to the conduct 
of the citizens, some of which repealed or softened the 
laws of Draco. The most interesting was a law that, in 
times of political dissension, any citizen who did not take 
one side or the other would be punished by losing 
his political rights : this seems to show that the three 
factions only comprised a small part of the people, and 
that there were a number of moderate men who held aloof 
from their disputes, who might, Solon hoped, by interfering 
put a stop to them. 



70 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Having completed his work, Solon caused a general 
amnesty, or pardon, to be proclaimed, by virtue of which 
the exiled Alcmaeonidae came back to Athens ; he then 
left Athens for ten years in order that he might not be 
asked to make further changes. During this voluntary 
exile he visited many countries, and many legends are told 
about his adventures, one of which will be mentioned later. 



CHAPTER X 

EARLY HISTORY OF ATHENS (continued) 
TYRANNY OF PEISISTRATUS AND REFORMS OF CLEISTHENES 

Dates. B. c. 

Peisistrat us makes himself tyrant, . . . 560 
Peisistratus succeeded by Hippias, 
Assassination of Hipparchus, . 
Expulsion of Hippias, 
Keforms of Cleisthenes, . 



527 
514 
510 
510 



Chief Names. — Peisistratus, Megacles, Miltiades, Hippias, 
Cleomenes, Isagoras, Cleisthenes. 

On his return Solon found his hopes disappointed ; no 
one seemed satisfied with the new constitution, and the 
old faction- struggle had broken out again, owing to the 
ambitious schemes of some of the nobles. The Plain-men 
were led by Miltiades and Lycurgus, the Shore -men by 
Megacles, the Alcmasonid, grandson of the suppressor of 
the Cylonian conspiracy, and son-in-law of Cleisthenes the 
tyrant of Sicyon (see p. 59), the Hill-men by a noble 
named Peisistratus, a kinsman of Solon. Peisistratus 
was by far the most able and dangerous of the three. 
Solon saw plainly that he was scheming to make himself 
4 tyrant,' and repeatedly warned the Athenians, but in 
vain. 

At last, one day (b.c. 560) Peisistratus drove into the 
market-place of Athens covered with wounds which he 
had inflicted on himself, and declared to the people that he 

71 



72 HISTORY OF GREECE 

had been attacked by his political foes ; thereupon the 
Athenians, in spite of the warning of Solon, gave him a 
bodyguard of fifty club-bearers, and Peisistratus employed 
them to seize the Acropolis, and so made himself tyrant. 
Megacles and Lycurgus fled from Athens, while Miltiades 
accepted the invitation of a tribe of the Thracian Chersonese 
to become their chief, and lead them against their barbarian 
foes. We shall hear of his family again in the history of 
Athens. 

Solon was treated with the greatest respect by Peisis- 
tratus : one account says that he advised him in his 
government ; other accounts say that he refused to become 
reconciled to him, and finding his protests unavailing retired 
to his country-house where he died (b.c. 558). After a 
short time Megacles and Lycurgus united their factions 
and succeeded in driving out Peisistratus. Then they 
began to quarrel, and Megacles made overtures to Peisis- 
tratus, promising to make him tyrant again if he would 
marry his daughter. Peisistratus accepted his terms, 
and, if we are to be believe Herodotus, the following plot 
was contrived to bring about his return. A beautiful 
woman of tall stature named Phya was arrayed in armour 
in imitation of the goddess Athene. Peisistratus took his 
place beside her in a chariot and drove towards Athens, 
sending heralds before him who made the following pro- 
clamation : ' Athenians, welcome home Peisistratus whom 
Athene herself is bringing back to her own city.' The 
Athenians believed the proclamation (for which, says 
Herodotus, they ought to be considered the simplest in- 
stead of the cleverest of mankind) ; and Peisistratus 
became tyrant a second time, and married Megacles' 
daughter. But he had already two grown-up sons 
named Hippias and Hipparchus, and they turned him 
against his new wife. Megacles hearing of it again joined 
the Plain-men, and Peisistratus was driven out a second 



EARL Y HIS TOR Y OF A THENS ( CONTINUED) 73 

time. He now retired to the town of Eretria in Euboea, 
and, encouraged by his son, Hippias, not to despair 
of returning to Athens, he busied himself strengthening 
his resources. He obtained money from friendly states, 
and so got together a force of mercenaries. After ten 
years he crossed over to Attica and landed at the bay of 
Marathon, opposite Euboea, where he was joined by many 
of his old partisans. His opponents marched against him, 
but he surprised and routed their army, inflicting on it as 
little loss as possible, and established himself as tyrant 
more securely than ever. Megacles and the Alcmseonidae 
were again forced to go into exile. 

This time Peisistratus remained in undisturbed possession 
of the tyranny until his death (b.c. 527) thirty years after 
his first usurpation, fourteen of which he had spent in exile. 
He used his ill-gotten power with ability and moderation, 
taking no vengeance upon his political opponents. He 
gained the goodwill of all classes of the rich by his easy 
familiarity, and of the poor by his liberality in helping them 
when in trouble ; under his rule trade and agriculture 
flourished, and Athens became strong and respected abroad ; 
like most tyrants, he patronised art and literature, and 
is said to have collected the poems of Homer into the form 
in which we now possess them. He does not seem to have 
abolished the constitution of Solon, but managed it in such 
a way as to keep all the important posts in the hands of his 
political adherents. 

Peisistratus was succeeded, apparently without any show 
of opposition, by Hippias, who shared his power with his 
brother Hipparchus. At first they followed the footsteps 
of their father. But, in the year b.c. 514, Hipparchus 
grossly insulted a young man named Harmodius, who in 
revenge made a plot with his friend Aristogeiton to kill 
the two tyrants. The occasion chosen was the festival of the 
Panathensea (see p. 20). Before all was ready for the deed, 



74 HISTORY OF GREECE 

the conspirators saw to their horror one of their number 
talking with Hippias ; thinking that he was betraying them, 
which was not the fact, they determined to make sure at 
least of Hipparchus, who was marshalling the procession 
in another place ; so they rushed off, and killed him. 
Harmodius was at once cut down by the guards, and the 
coolness of Hippias prevented any further outbreak. Aristo- 
geiton was afterwards taken, and died under tortures in- 
flicted to make him reveal the names of his accomplices. 
Thus Harmodius and Aristogeiton failed in their object, 
but their attempt paved the way for the overthrow of 
the tyranny, for Hippias henceforward became cruel and 
suspicious ; many citizens were put to death on suspicion 
of being in the plot, others were banished, and lost their 
property. So the Athenians began to hate Hippias, and 
longed to get rid of him. 

The exiled Alcniaeonidae, who were now led by Cleisthenes, 
son of Megacles, determined to take advantage of the change 
of feeling at Athens, and marched with an army against 
Hippias, but he beat them and drove them out of Attica. 
Then they tried another plan. Some years before, they had 
obtained the goodwill of the priests of Delphi by rebuilding 
the temple after a fire with great magnificence ; and in 
gratitude for this service, and also, it is said, owing to fresh 
presents, the priests agreed to persuade the Spartans to 
expel Hippias. The Spartans, as we have seen, were at 
the head of a confederacy in the Peloponnese, and they 
were now stronger than ever owing to the fall, not long 
before, of the tyrannies in Corinth, Sicyon, and other cities ; 
for the loss of the tyrants made those cities weaker, so that 
they were forced to become the allies of Sparta. Hippias 
was the only tyrant left in Greece ; and now, whatever 
question the Spartans asked the oracle, the answer was 
always the same : ' Athens must be freed. 5 

So at last they sent an army under the king Cleomenes ; 



EARL Y H1ST0R Y OF A THENS ( CONTINUED) 75 

Hippias was beaten, and driven into the Acropolis, and 
then by a piece of luck his children were captured as they 
were being sent out of the country. To save their lives 
Hippias was forced to surrender, and retired to Asia Minor, 
where he will be heard of again (b.c. 510). Thus the rule 
of the Peisistratidse came to an end at Athens by the inter- 
vention of the Spartans, but the Athenians in after years 
came to honour Harmodius and Aristogeiton as the liberators 
of the country ; statues were erected to them and songs 
composed in their memory ; the last four years of Hippias's 
rule obliterated the recollection of the good government of 
Peisistratus ; and the memory of the tyrants at Athens was 
regarded with execration. 

No sooner was Athens free than the political strife began 
again, though we do not hear any more of the old faction 
names. Cleisthenes was the most powerful politician, but 
finding himself opposed by Isagoras at the head of the 
nobles, he put himself at the head of the people, the old 
party of Peisistratus, and determined to break down the 
power of the nobles : in the words of Herodotus, i he took 
the people into partnership. 5 

His first step was to substitute ten new tribes for the four 
old Ionic ones. For the nobles had still great influence in 
the old tribes, and a great many of the people, being more 
recent settlers in Attica, did not belong to them, and so had 
no vote in the Ecclesia. Cleisthenes divided the whole 
population, including the new settlers, afresh into ten tribes, 
named after old Attic heroes, every member of which had 
a vote. Each tribe consisted of ten parishes or 'demes' 
(o^jioi), making a hundred in all, the number being after- 
wards increased as the population grew ; but, in order to 
prevent the tribes' forming factions like the Hill-men and 
the rest, he arranged that the denies making up any 
particular tribe should not be close together, but taken 
from different parts of Attica. Each deme elected a head- 



76 HISTORY OF GREECE 

man, and used to meet for worship and for transacting 
the local business ; in the same way each tribe met at 
Athens for the worship and business of the tribe. For 
war, the people were marshalled by their tribes, and each 
tribe elected a general or 'strategus' (cn-par^yd?), who 
with the Polemarch (see p. 64) shared the command of 
the army. 

The Council or Boule was increased from 400 to 500 
members, fifty being elected from each tribe, and continued 
its functions of preparing measures for the Ecclesia. In 
the Ecclesia the people were now more powerful owing to 
the admission of the new citizens ; it was more often 
summoned, and took a much more prominent part in the 
government, while the Archons seem to have lost much of 
their authority during the tyranny, and now, according to 
some accounts, began to be elected by lot. 

Finally, to prevent any one in future making himself 
tyrant, Cleisthenes introduced a new and strange device 
called 'Ostracism' ( J Oo-rpaKio-/xds, from oo-rpctKov, a tile). 
The procedure was as follows : — In times of extreme party 
strife a motion might be brought before the Ecclesia declar- 
ing that the state was in danger, no names being mentioned ; 
if the motion was carried, every citizen wrote on a tile the 
name of the statesman whom he considered dangerous. 
If there were 6000 votes against any one man, he was 
obliged to leave Athens for ten years, that is, he was 
banished, but without incurring any of the disgrace of 
banishment or loss of property and citizenship. Ostracism 
was employed several times during the first half of the 
next century, but, as the recollection of the danger of a 
tyranny faded, it fell into contempt and was dropped. 

Alarmed at these sweeping changes, Isagoras appealed to 
Sparta ; and the Spartans sent one of the kings, Cleomenes, 
with a small force, who ordered the Athenians to expel 
the accursed family of the AlcmaBonidas to which Cleisthenes 



EARL Y HISTOR Y OF A THENS ( CONTINUED) 77 

belonged, thus using religious feeling for political ends, a 
favourite practice of the Spartans as we shall see in the 
course of the history. Oleisthenes retired from Athens in 
obedience to the summons ; and Isagoras, aided by Cleo- 
menes, proceeded to establish an oligarchy by overthrowing 
the Council of Five Hundred, and expelling 700 families of 
his opponents. But the Athenians, discovering how few 
troops Cleomenes had, suddenly rose, and drove him and 
the adherents of Isagoras into the Acropolis. Being 
without provisions, Cleomenes agreed to depart, and took 
Isagoras with him, but many of his adherents were put 
to death. Cleisthenes was now recalled, and completed his 
reforms. 

Thus the power of the nobles was broken, and the people 
were triumphant at Athens. But the danger had not 
passed away. Cleomenes, furious at his failure, was still 
bent on the restoration of Isagoras ; and the Athenians had 
in Thebes another bitter enemy on their very frontier. 
The cause of the unfriendliness between Athens and Thebes 
was the little town of Platsea : it has been already ex- 
plained (p. 33) that Platsea refused to acknowledge the 
headship of Thebes in Boeotia ; and, during the tyranny 
of Hippias a few years before, the Plataeans had appealed 
to Athens for protection, which had been granted. The 
Thebans now saw an opportunity of taking their revenge. 
In these straits the Athenians, by the advice it is said of 
Cleisthenes, actually sent ambassadors to Sardis to ask for 
help from the King of Persia, who, as will be explained 
later, had recently conquered Asia Minor and the Greek 
colonies on the coast. The ambassadors were told that help 
would only be given if the Athenians acknowledged the 
supremacy of the Persians by sending earth and water, the 
usual token of submission. To this the ambassadors agreed, 
but, on their return to Athens, the Athenians rejected these 
terms with indignation. Of Cleisthenes no more is heard ; 



78 % HISTORY OF GREECE 

possibly he lost his political influence owing to this 
mission to the Persians ; but the history of this period is 
very incomplete, so that there can be no certainty about 
the matter. 

It was not long before the storm broke upon Athens. 
Cleomenes collected the army of the Spartans and allies, 
without, however, stating the exact object of the expedition, 
and, accompanied by his colleague Demaratus, crossed the 
Isthmus. At the same time, by arrangement, the Thebans 
invaded on the north-west, and also the Chalcidians of 
Euboea on the north-east. The position of the Athenians 
seemed hopeless : they marched first against Cleomenes, 
who had reached Eleusis ; but before the battle was fought 
the Corinthians, finding that Cleomenes intended to set up 
Isagoras as a tyrant, and remembering their own tyrants, 
from whom they had lately been delivered, refused to fight 
against Athens, and they were supported by Demaratus. 
Thereupon Cleomenes was obliged to abandon his project 
and return to Sparta. 

Then the Athenians turned fiercely on their other two foes, 
and showed what strength and energy their new institutions 
had given them. On the same day they defeated both the 
Thebans and Chalcidians in two separate battles. The city 
of Chalcis was conquered, and 4000 Athenian citizens 
were settled on its territory as 'cleruchs,' that is 'lot- 
holders ' (Kkrjpovxoi, from K\i)pos, lot ; ergOT, to have) : 
these cleruchs differed from colonists in being still full 
citizens of Athens. 

Thus the Athenian people won their freedom against 
faction at home and enmity abroad, and Athens was now 
ready for the great career which, though she knew it not, 
awaited her in the near future. 

So alarmed were the Spartans at the rising power of 
Athens that they actually resolved to restore Hippias to 
his tyranny. They summoned him from Persia where he 



EARL Y HIS TOR Y OF A THENS {CONTINUED) 79 

had been trying to persuade the King to help him, and a 
meeting of the allies was held at Sparta ; but they all, 
especially the Corinthians, protested so strongly against the 
iniquitous project, that it was abandoned, as might be 
expected, and Hippias returned to Persia. Thus a second 
time the allies of Sparta saved Athens. 

This was the last effort made by Sparta against Athens 
for the present ; the enmity between the two cities now 
began to be overshadowed by a great danger which 
threatened the very existence of the Greeks as a nation : 
this danger was the rise of the great Asiatic Empire of the 
Persians ; how it arose and how it came into conflict with 
the Greeks will be described in the next chapter. When 
the danger passed away we shall see that the old emnity 
arose again, but Sparta had then a very different Athens 
to deal with ; it was not till a huodred years from this 
time that she succeeded in crushing Athens, and in doing 
so she unwittingly crushed the only chance the Greeks 
had of becoming a great and united nation. 



Dates, 

EARLY HISTORY BEFORE THE PERSIAN WARS. 



Conquest of the Peloponnese by the Dorians 




B.C. 


and migrations to Asia Minor, . 


about 1000 


Lycurgus at Sparta, .... 




„ 830 


First Olympiad, 




. 776 


First Messenian War, 






743-730 


Age of the Tyrants, 






. 700-500 


Second Messenian War, . 






650-630 


Draco at Athens, .... 






624 


Reforms of Solon at Athens, . 






594 


Peisistratus, tyrant at Athens, 






560 


Sparta supreme in the Peloponnese, 






550 


Peisistratus succeeded by Hippias, 






527 


Assassination of Hipparchus, 






514 


Expulsion of Hippias from Athens and Reforms 


of Cleisthenes, .... 






510 



8o 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



CONTEMPORARY EVENTS. 



The West 


The East. 




Foundation of Home (le- B.C. 


Overthrow of the Assyrian 


B.C. 


gendary), . . .753 


Empire, 


625 


Expulsion of the kings 


The Jews carried into Cap- 




from Rome, . . .510 


tivity to Babylon, 
Babylon taken by the 


586 




Persians under Cyrus, 


538 




Return of the Jews from 






Captivity, . 


536 



CHAPTER XI 

THE PERSIANS AND THE IONIC REVOLT 

Dates. B.C. 

Kevolt of the Ionians, 500 

Burning of Sardis, 499 

Battle of Lade, 496 

Chief Xames.— Croesus, Cyrus, Darius, Miltiades, Aristagoras, 
Histiaeus. 

It has already been narrated how the Greek settlements 
in Asia Minor lost their freedom owing to the rise of the 
powerful Lydian nation, whose king, Croesus, reigned at 
Sardis. But other and more formidable foes to the Greeks 
began about this time to appear in Asia — the famous twin 
nation of the Medes and Persians. To understand the rise 
of the Medes and Persians we must go back to the time 
when the great Semitic Empire of the Assyrians, with its 
capital at Nineveh on the Tigris, ruled in the valley of the 
Tigris and Euphrates ; we read in the Bible how the 
Assyrians conquered the different nations around them, 
how they carried the Israelites into captivity, and how 
their king, Sennacherib, was only prevented from treating 
Hezekiah and the Jews in a like manner by a pestilence 
which destroyed his army. The Assyrian Empire was 
then at the height of its power ; but soon afterwards it 
was weakened by an invasion of the Scythians, fierce bar- 
barians from the north, who were only driven away after 
twenty-eight years. Before Assyria could recover, it was 

F 



82 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



attacked by its subjects the Medes (an Aryan race dwelling 
east of the Tigris in the mountainous country south of 
the Caspian) and the Babylonians (a people akin to the 
Assyrians, whose capital, Babylon, was further south on the 
Euphrates). Nineveh was taken (about B.C. 625), the last 
king, Sardanapalus as the Greeks called him, burning his 




THE NATIONS OF THE EAST 



palace over his head with his wives, children, and treasures ; 
and the Medes and Babylonians divided the empire, the 
Medes taking the northern part, the Babylonians the 
southern, which included Egypt and Palestine. Soon after- 
wards the famous Nebuchadnezzar succeeded to the throne 
of Babylon and carried off the Jewish nation into captivity 
(b.c. 586). 

Meanwhile the Medes had carried their victorious arms 
northward and westward over the mountainous tract now 
called Armenia, till they reached the River Halys. There 



THE PERSIANS AND THE IONIC REVOLT 83 

they found themselves confronted by the kingdom of 
Lydia, at that time under a king called Alyattes, father of 
Croesus. A battle was fought (b.c. 585), said to have been 
stopped by an eclipse of the sun ; after which, by the inter- 
vention of Nebuchadnezzar, peace was made, and the Halys 
was made the boundary between the Lydians and Medes. 

Alyattes on his death (b.c. 560) was succeeded by his 
son Croesus, the first conqueror of the Greek settlements. 
Croesus was famous for his power and wealth, and thought 
himself secure in his prosperity ; there is a legend that Solon 
on his travels visited Sardis, and Croesus, after showing him 
all his treasures, asked him whom he thought the happiest 
man on earth. Solon, to his astonishment, did not mention 
his name, and when asked the reason, replied that he could 
not call any one happy till his death. Unfortunately, if the 
dates commonly given are right, Solon had returned to 
Athens before Croesus's accession ; and the story seems to 
have arisen owing to the sad change of fortune which after- 
wards befell Croesus. For suddenly a new and unexpected 
enemy appeared ; about B.C. 550 the Persians, a tribe of 
hardy mountaineers, kinsmen of the Medes, and forming part 
of their empire, who dwelt in the mountainous country south 
of Media, rose in revolt under a prince named Cyrus. 

Many legends are told about the birth and boyhood of 
Cyrus ; his mother is said to have been the daughter of the 
Median king, Astyages, and at his birth he was given to 
a shepherd to be exposed on the mountains, because a pro- 
phecy said that he would overthrow the Median Empire ; 
but his life was preserved, and in due time he fulfilled his 
destiny. But modern researches among the ancient cunei- 
form inscriptions of Babylon show that he was king of Elam, 
a Semitic kingdom on the lower course of the Tigris, of 
which Susa was the capital. How he came to lead the 
Persians is not known. The Median king marched 
against Cyrus, but was slain in battle ; the conqueror 



84 HISTORY OF GREECE 

ascended the vacant throne, and the Medes and Persians 
became and henceforward remained a single people. 
Cyrus continued his victorious career over the various 
nations that had formed the Median Empire ; and Croesus, 
becoming alarmed at his rising power, formed an alliance 
against him with Babylon, Egypt, and even Sparta. He 
is said to have asked advice from the oracle of Delphi, 
having first discovered by trial that it was the most trust- 
worthy of all Greek oracles, and receiving as an answer 
'Croesus, if he cross the Halys, will overthrow a great 
empire,' he resolved to begin the war at once without 
waiting for his allies (b.c. 546). The rival armies met 
beyond the Halys ; the battle was doubtful, and as winter 
was approaching Croesus returned to Sardis to wait till 
spring brought his allies, and foolishly dismissed his army. 

But in spite of the season Cyrus followed up the Lydians 
vigorously. Croesus was obliged to fight with such troops 
as he could collect, and was defeated. Sardis, hitherto 
thought impregnable, was taken, and the Lydian kingdom 
came to an end. Cyrus, according to the legend men- 
tioned above, placed Croesus on a funeral pyre, and was 
about to have him burnt alive when he cried aloud, 
' Solon ! Solon ! ' Cyrus in astonishment asked what the 
words meant, and Croesus told him the story of his inter- 
view with Solon. Thereupon Cyrus spared his life and 
kept him near him as a friend and counsellor. Croesus 
is said to have complained to the oracle for its false pre- 
diction, but the oracle replied that he ought to have asked 
whose empire he was about to destroy, his own or that of 
Cyrus. 

The Greeks of Asia Minor now found themselves obliged 
to exchange the mild rule of Croesus for the harder yoke 
of the Persians. They did not submit at once, but were 
reduced one after another by the general left behind by 
Cyrus, who had departed to the East for further conquests ; 



THE PERSIANS AND THE IONIC REVOLT 85 

and tyrants friendly to Persia were set up in most of the 
cities. After carrying his victorious arms to the frontier of 
India, Cyrus turned against Babylon (b.c. 540). The king, 
Nabonadius, was defeated and fled, leaving Babylon in 
charge of his son Belshazzar. Secure within his enormous 
fortifications, said to have consisted of four walls each 300 
feet high, Belshazzar, as we read in the Book of Daniel, 
gave himself up to feasting ; but Cyrus, according to the 
story, diverted the waters of the Euphrates and entered 
the city by the dry river-bed (b.c. 538). Thus Babylon 
was taken 1 and Belshazzar slain ; the mighty Babylonian 
Empire fell into the hands of Cyrus, and with it Palestine, 
to which the Jews were soon afterwards sent back. 

The Persian Empire now extended from the Indus to the 
Mediterranean ; but Cyrus still continued his wars and 
perished nine years later (b.c. 529), fighting against the 
wild Scythian tribes north-east of the Caspian. 

Cambyses, his son who succeeded him, conquered 
Egypt, and died b.c. 522 ; with him the line of Cyrus 
became extinct. Cambyses is described by the Greek 
historian as a cruel tyrant and almost a madman ; but 
there appears no real reason for this statement. A 
Magian priest, pretending to be a son of Cyrus whom 
Cambyses had killed, reigned for a few months, and then 
was slain by a conspiracy of Persian nobles, one of whom, 
Darius, son of Hystaspes, became king (b.c. 521). The 
opening years of his reign were full of trouble ; not being 
a descendant of Cyrus, he was assailed with revolts in 
different parts of the empire. Gradually, however, order 
was restored and many of the rebels were cruelly punished. 
He then set himself to put the government of his great 

1 According to the cuneiform inscriptions Cyrus took Babylon 
without any resistance ; in that case the diverting of the Euphrates 
must have taken place at a subsequent siege, when Babylon 
revolted from the Persians. 



86 HISTORY OF GREECE 

empire thoroughly in order. The capital was fixed at Susa, 
and the empire was divided into twenty whole provinces 
under governors called Satraps, who ruled almost absolutely 
as long as they furnished soldiers and a fixed tribute. He 
is said to have been the first Persian king who coined 
gold and silver, whence the Persian coins were called Darics. 
To keep up communication with the distant parts of this 
vast empire Susa was connected with the other cities by 
means of a system of posting-stations placed at intervals 
of about fifteen miles along the great routes (roads they 
could hardly be called), and the royal messages were con- 
veyed from station to station by successive couriers at 
full speed. These Persian couriers were very famous in 
antiquity. 

After having firmly established his power, Darius 
next turned his thoughts towards military glory. His 
first expedition was against India, and resulted in the 
conquest of the country now called the Punjaub. He 
then resolved on an invasion of Europe ; and the Greeks 
found themselves for the first time threatened by the fate of 
their Asiatic kinsmen. Darius's next campaign, however, 
was not actually against Greece, but against the Scythians 
(see p. 81) north of the Danube. These Scythians were a 
nation of hunters who roamed over the vast plains from the 
Danube through the south of what is now Russia to beyond 
the Caspian, carrying their goods and families about with 
them in waggons. His object is said to have been to punish 
them for their raid into Asia in the preceding century, but 
more probably it was to clear the way for a future invasion 
of Greece. With an army of several hundred thousand 
men collected from the different parts of his huge empire, 
Darius crossed the Bosphorus by a bridge of boats ; the 
native tribes and Greek colonies in Thrace submitted to the 
invader. The barbarous Getce between the Balkans and 
the Danube were conquered, and near the mouth of the 



THE PERSIANS AND THE IONIC REVOLT 87 

Danube Darius was joined by his fleet, 600 vessels furnished 
mainly by the Asiatic Greeks, which had coasted up through 
the Euxine. A bridge of boats was made which was left 
in charge of the Greeks, with orders to guard it for 
sixty days, and Darius with his army crossed by it, and 
disappeared into the wilds of Scythia. More than two 
months elapsed, and Darius did not appear ; so the leaders 
of the Greeks began to think of destroying the bridge 
and retiring ; foremost of those who urged this course was 
Miltiades, despot of the Chersonese, nephew of Miltiades, 
already mentioned (p. 72), but Histiasus, tyrant of Miletus, 
dissuaded them, pointing out that it was against their 
interests as tyrants to injure the Persians, for it was the 
Persians who supported their rule. So the bridge was left, 
and very shortly the Persian army reappeared ; wearied 
by long marches, harassed by the continual attacks of the 
Scythians, but unable to 'come to close quarters with them, 
and suffering from want of provisions, it was obliged to 
abandon the campaign and retreat. 

Darius returned to Asia, leaving a force behind which 
reduced all Thrace ; even Amyntas, king of Macedonia, 
submitted ; thus the danger was coming very near Greece. 
Histiasus was rewarded for his conduct at the bridge, but 
soon afterwards was summoned by Darius to Susa, ap- 
parently because his loyalty was suspected. His son-in-law, 
Aristagoras, became tyrant of Miletus. Miltiades, barely 
escaping capture by the Persians, left the Chersonese for 
Athens, where we shall hear of him again. 

Hardly had Darius recovered from the effects of his ill- 
success against the Scythians, when he was confronted by 
another serious trouble, the revolt of the Ionians (b.c. 500). 
The causes of the revolt, which must have seemed quite 
hopeless, are not very clear ; possibly the failure of the 
Scythian expedition may have given rise to a notion of the 
weakness of the Persians, while the desire to get rid of the 



88 HISTORY OF GREECE 

tyrants, whom the Persians supported, may have had some- 
thing to do with it ; Herodotus ascribes the revolt wholly 
to the intrigues of Aristagoras and Histia?us. According to 
his account, Aristagoras made an expedition against the 
island of Naxoe with Artaphernes, brother of Darius, satrap 
of Lydia ; but they quarrelled, and the expedition failed. 
Aristagoras, being consequently in a great difficulty, was 
thinking of putting himself at the head of a revolt, when 
Histiaeus, hoping that if a revolt occurred he would be sent 
down to quell it, sent him a message urging that very same 
course, The message, for safety, was written on the shaved 
head of a slave, on which the hair was then allowed to grow. 
Whatever the cause may have been, Aristagoras persuaded 
the Milesians to revolt, and resigned his tyranny ; he then 
drove out the other tyrants, or persuaded them to resign 
also. The revolt quickly spread, and soon included all the 
Greek cities on the coast of Asia Minor ; but, as the Ionians 
took the chief part, it is known as the Ionian revolt. 

Aristagoras then crossed over to Greece to ask for aid. 
The Spartans refused when they heard that Susa, the 
capital of the Persians, was three months' march from the 
sea. But Athens agreed to help her kinsmen, and sent 
twenty ships with soldiers, for she was afraid that the 
Persians would restore Hippias ; Eretria in Eubcea also 
sent five ships, for Miletus had once aided the Eretrians. 
With these scanty reinforcements Aristagoras returned 
to Miletus ; and the Greeks boldly marched against Sardis 
(see map, p. 82). Artaphernes the satrap, taken by surprise, 
had only time to throw himself into the citadel ; and the 
Greeks set the town on fire and sacked it. But they were 
soon compelled to retreat, and near Ephesus they were 
attacked and defeated by a large Persian force ; whereupon 
the Athenians and Eretrians in despair sailed off home 
(b.c. 499). 

Darius was furious when he heard of the sack of Sardis, 



THE PERSIANS AND THE IONIC REVOLT 89 



and took energetic measures to crush the revolt. Three 
large armies were sent down to the coast, and a fleet raised 
from the Phoenicians. With these forces the Greeks were 
unable to cope ; in spite of some successes city after city 
was taken ; Aristagoras fled to Thrace, but was killed there 
by the natives. Histiseus, after a time, was sent down from 
Susa to the coast by Darius ; but Artaphernes received him 
with the remark, ' You made the shoe, but Aristagoras put 




THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF MILETUS 

it on.' At this he fled to the Ionians ; but, being received 
by them too with suspicion, he took to fighting on his own 
account, and became little better than a pirate. He was 
captured by Artaphernes after the suppression of the revolt 
and beheaded. 

By the year 496 B.C. the war was concentrated round 
Miletus, which Artaphernes attacked by land and sea. The 
Greek fleet of 353 ships lay off the Island of Lade, 



90 HISTORY OF GREECE 

confronted by 600 Phoenician ships. Disunion and despair 
reigned among the Greeks, unaccustomed to the endurance 
necessary for a prolonged campaign ; long discussions were 
held, and a Phocrean captain told them that their only 
chance lay in steady and continuous naval drill. For seven 
days they put themselves under him, but then relapsed into 
their former indifference and carelessness. Meanwhile the 
Persians had been tampering with the leaders of some of 
the contingents, and the Samians, seeing defeat was certain, 
had agreed to desert. So when the Phoenician fleet ad- 
vanced to the attack the Greeks came out all unprepared : 
the Samians were the first to sail away, other contingents 
followed ; the Chians were left almost alone, and with the 
few who stood by them were overwhelmed by numbers. 
Such was the disastrous fight of Lade (b.c. 496). 

Next year Miletus, helpless after the loss of the fleet, 
was taken and destroyed, and its inhabitants were sold into 
slavery. Its fate sent a thrill of horror through Greece : a 
poet exhibited a play at Athens on the subject called 'the 
Capture of Miletus,' which moved the audience to tears, for 
which he was heavily fined. In the course of the next year, 
all the other cities in Asia and Thrace which had revolted 
were reduced or submitted from fear of suffering the fate of 
Miletus. The victorious Persians punished these cities 
with merciless severity, but they were left with their own 
governments, the tyrants not being restored, perhaps be- 
cause Darius felt that they were not to be trusted. 

Thus ended the Ionic revolt : it was plain that the Greeks 
of Asia were not strong or united enough to free themselves. 
Freedom could only come by aid of the mother-country ; 
but the only thought of the mother-country at this time 
was how she could possibly defend herself against the 
terrible Persians, for there could be little doubt that their 
next step would be the invasion of Greece itself. 



CHAPTER XII 



THE PERSIAN INVASIONS : MARATHON 

Dates. b. c. 

First Invasion, 492 

Second Invasion (Marathon), . . . 490 

Death of Darius and Accession of Xerxes, . 485 

Chief Names. — Mardonins, Miltiades, Themistocles, Aristeides 

The subjugation of the Asiatic Greeks did not satisfy 
Darius's thirst for vengeance. The audacity of the Athenians 
in venturing to attack Sardis, one of the chief cities of 
the empire, had still to be chastised : every day, we are 
told, it was the duty of one of his servants to say to him 
three times at dinner, ' Master, remember the Athenians.' 
Even without this motive, Darius, as has been mentioned, 
was planning an invasion of Greece, and Hippias was still 
at his court urging him on to undertake the expedition, 
in the hope of being restored by the Persians to his 
tyranny over Athens. That there could be any difficulty 
in conquering a small and disunited country like Greece 
seemed absurd. 

Two years, therefore, after the end of the Ionic revolt 
(b.c. 492) a large army under Mardonius, nephew and 
son-in-law of the king, crossed the Hellespont and started 
to march through Thrace so as to enter Greece from the 
north through Macedonia and Thessaly, while a fleet 
followed its movements along the coast. This is the First 

91 



92 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Persian Invasion ; but the expedition got no further than 
Macedonia. The fleet was shattered by a tempest while 
rounding the dangerous headland of Mount Athos in Chalci- 
dice, and lost 300 ships and 20,000 men, while the army 
was attacked by night by a Thracian tribe called Brygi, 
and suffered severely. Mardonius contented himself with 
chastising the Brygi, and then, considering further advance 
hopeless, retreated to Asia. He was never again employed 
by Darius. 

Roused only to greater fury by this check, Darius at 
once began preparations for a second invasion. As the 
land route through Thrace had been a failure, and Mount 
Athos had proved disastrous to the fleet, he resolved to place 
his whole army on board the fleet and send it straight 
across the iEgean ; the disadvantage of this plan was that 
the numbers could not be so large. While this armada was 
mustering, heralds were sent to Greece to demand earth 
and water, the usual Persian tokens of submission, from 
the various states. All the islands, helpless against the 
Persian navy, submitted, and some of the land states, 
among which were Argos, the enemy of Sparta, and Thebes, 
the enemy of Athens. The Athenians themselves flung the 
herald into a pit used for criminals, called the Barathrum, 
bidding him get earth thence for himself, while the Spartans 
flung him into a well for the water. 

By the summer of B.C. 490 the armament was ready to 
start ; it consisted of 600 Ionian and Phoenician triremes 
with horse transports in addition, and a land force of over 
100,000 men under Artaphernes, son of the satrap of that 
name, and Datis, a Mede, with Hippias and other Greek 
exiles on board ; its orders were to bring the Athenians 
and Eretrians prisoners to Darius. Putting out from 
Samos the Persians crossed the iEgean from island to 
island till they reached Euboea, 

Alarm and discord prevailed at Eretria ; some were for 



THE PERSIAN INVASIONS: MARATHON 93 

defending the city, others for abandoning it and retiring 
to the mountains, some even were meditating a treacherous 
surrender ; meanwhile they sent to Athens for help, and 
the Athenians ordered the 4000 settlers who had been 
sent to Eubcea (see p. 78) to go to their assistance, but 




XERXES'S MARCH 



being warned that there was treachery among the Eretrians 
they judged it prudent to escape to Attica. Finally, the 
Eretrians made up their minds to defend the city, but 
after six days' fighting it was taken and the inhabitants 
made prisoners. Thus the first part of the object of the 
expedition was accomplished. Meanwhile no Greek state 



94 HISTORY OF GREECE 

had sent help to Athens ; even those who had refused 
earth and water seemed too much concerned about their 
own safety. 

When the news of the fall of Eretria came, the Athenians 
sent a runner named Pheidippides to Sparta, who is said to 
have covered the distance of over 150 miles of mountainous 
country in two days ; the Spartans promised to send their 
army, but said that they were prevented by religious 
custom from starting till the full moon or middle of the 
month, it being now the ninth day ; whether this was a 
mere pretence or not we cannot say. 

Meanwhile the Persians, after a few days' rest, had crossed 
thes trait and landed in Attica at the bay of Marathon, 
the advantages of which were pointed out to the com- 
manders by Hippias, who had landed there with his father 
before the latter^ second return (see p. 73); it was the 
nearest landing-place to Eretria, and the plain of Marathon 
was most suitable for cavalry, in which arm the Persians 
were strong and the Greeks weak. On hearing of the 
landing the Athenians at once marched off to Marathon, 
9000 hoplites (ottXittjs, the ordinary Greek heavy-armed 
foot-soldier), strong besides light troops, and encamped 
opposite the Persians on the spurs of the mountains, about 
a mile off; they were commanded by the Polemarch 
Callim&chus and the ten Generals, one of whom was 
Miltiades, late tyrant of the Chersonese (see p. 87 ). 
Here, in the very presence of the hitherto invincible 
Persians, they received the only help that reached them 
from the rest of Greece ; the Platseans, in gratitude 
for the protection afforded them by Athens against their 
old enemy, Thebes (see p. 77), sent their whole army, 
1000 hoplites, to conquer or perish by the side of their 
protectors. It was one of the most heroic acts recorded 
in Greek history, for the hope of victory must have 
seemed small. So unequal did the numbers seem, and 



THE PERSIAN INVASIONS: MARATHON 95 

so greatly were the Persians feared, that five of the 
Athenian Generals were against fighting at all ; thus the 
decision, on which hung the fate of Greece and of Europe, 
depended on the casting vote of the Polemarch, and 
Miltiades, probably knowing that Hippias had friends 
at Athens, persuaded him to give it for battle. The 
Generals, who as a rule commanded in turn, now all gave 
up their commands to Miltiades as being more experienced 
in war ; but he waited till his own day of command came. 
Meanwhile the Persians lay inactive in their camp ; with 
what object we are not told, perhaps they were waiting 
for the partisans of Hippias, of whom there were still a 
certain number at Athens, to give a preconcerted signal, 
a bright shield hoisted on a hill near the city, which was 
to show that it was open to attack. 

When they saw the Athenian line forming for battle on 
the hill slopes, the Persians were seized with astonishment, 
but formed their line as quickly as they could in front 




A Athenian army. B Persian i 
C Persian fleet. D Marshes. 



Marathon 



MARATHON 



of their ships ; of their cavalry we hear nothing, perhaps 
they were not disembarked. Miltiades had been obliged to 
weaken his centre in order to extend his troops across the 
plain, while the barbarians had their best troops, the 



96 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Persians themselves, and the Sacians in their centre. 
Charging at a run, the whole Greek army bore down on 
the enemy, their heavily-armed compact mass broke through 
the ill-armed, ill-trained barbarians on the wings in spite 
of their numbers, but their centre was driven back ; then 
the wings came to the rescue of the centre and soon the 
whole Persian army was flying to its ships and endeavour- 
ing to launch them. The Greeks followed closely and 
tried to seize or burn the ships, but the Persians defended 
them vigorously, and saved all except seven ; they put 
hurriedly to sea, having lost over 6000 men killed, while the 
better armed Athenians only lost 192, but among the slain 
was the Polemarch Callimachus, who fell in the fighting round 
the ships. As the Persians were sailing away the signal 
of the bright shield was seen ; so they sailed round Cape 
Sunium, hoping to retrieve their defeat by capturing 
Athens ; but Miltiades had also seen and understood the 
signal and hurried back with his army ; and when the 
Persians reached the bay of Phalerum, the harbour of 
Athens, they saw the victors of Marathon drawn up ready 
to receive them ; whereupon Datis and Artaphernes aban- 
doned the enterprise and made off to Asia, carrying with 
them their Eretrian prisoners. Hippias, now an old man, 
died soon afterwards. So ended the Second Persian Invasion 
of Greece ; it proved the superiority of the Greek soldiers 
over the Asiatics, and raised Athens into the first rank of 
Greek states. 

The defeat of his army at Marathon only served to spur 
on Darius to still greater exertions to wipe out the disaster 
and effect the conquest of Greece. He issued orders for 
the levying of a still larger force from all the nations of his 
vast empire, a force that, by its overwhelming numbers, 
should make all hope of resistance impossible. But while 
the vast preparations were still in progress his attention 
was diverted by a rebellion which broke out in Egypt (b.c. 



THE PERSIAN INVASIONS: MARATHON 97 

487), and before he could set out to quell it he died (b.c. 
485) at the age of sixty- two, after a reign of thirty-six 
years. He was succeeded by his son Xerxes, a young man 
who, having been reared amid the luxury and voluptuous- 
ness of an Eastern court, proved himself a childish and 
wilful tyrant instead of a capable ruler like his father. 
However he showed no want of activity at the beginning of 
his reign. Egypt was reduced to submission in a single 
campaign (b.c. 484), and then by the advice of his cousin 
Mardonius (see p. 91) he again set on foot the interrupted 
preparations for the final invasion and conquest of Greece. 

In Greece during these years the first event of importance 
had been the sad end of the victor of Marathon. The year 
after the battle Miltiades had persuaded the Athenians to 
place a fleet of seventy triremes l under his command, with- 
out telling them the object of his expedition. With these 
ships he sailed against the little island of Paros in the 
iEgean, with which he had a private quarrel. He landed 
and assaulted the city, but without success : a priestess 
then offered to betray the city, bidding him come and talk 
with her in a temple which no male was allowed to enter. 
Miltiades set out for the temple, but just before he reached 
it he was seized with horror at the impiety of his act and 
turned back ; it was too late, the vengeance of heaven (so 
the Greeks considered) fell upon him, and, as he was climb- 
ing over a fence, a sharp stake pierced his thigh. Wounded 
and unsuccessful he returned to Athens, and was brought 
to trial for misuse of the state forces. His accuser, 

1 The trireme, the ordinary Greek war ship, was a vessel of 
about 200 tons, propelled by oars arranged in three rows, the 
highest of which was six feet above the water ; it also had masts 
and sails, but these were usually left on shore before battle ; an 
iron-tipped beak was fixed to the prow, the method of fighting 
being to sink the enemy by ramming. The crew consisted of 170 
rowers, twenty sailors, and about ten marines. 

G 



9 8 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Xanthippus, denianded the penalty of death, but in memory 
of his great services a fine only of fifty talents (.£10,000), 
probably the cost of the armament, was exacted. Miltiades 
died in a few days of his wound and disappointment, and 
his son Chnon, a young man who afterwards became a 
famous soldier and statesman, paid the fine. 

The two most prominent men at Athens were now 
Themistdcles and Aristeides, men of the most opposite 
character, both of whom rendered great services to their 
state. Themistocles was a far-seeing statesman, full of 
resource, but utterly unprincipled, not caring what means 
he used to arrive at his ends ; in his latter years he was 
even accused of treachery to Athens. Aristeides, on the 
other hand, was not so far-seeing as his rival, but he was a 
true patriot, and so thoroughly honest in all he did that he 
obtained the name of the Just. 

The first service of Themistocles was to make Athens a 
great naval state, a step which proved the source of all 
her subsequent greatness. Already, before the battle of 
Marathon, he had persuaded the Athenians to make the 
land-locked bay of Peirams their chief harbour instead of 
the open roadstead of Phalerum. Athens was now engaged 
at war with the neighbouring island of iEglna, and could 
gain no decisive success owing to the strength of the 
iEginetan fleet. It happened, however, that the Athenians 
possessed at Laurium, a mountain in the south of Attica, 
some silver mines, the profits of which were at this time so 
large that it was proposed to distribute the money among 
the citizens. Themistocles however came forward and 
persuaded the Athenians to use it in building a fleet of two 
hundred triremes, which would be far larger than that of 
iEgina or any other state. He also persuaded them to 
arrange to build twenty new triremes every year. 

Aristeides strongly opposed the carrying out of these 
measures, for he was afraid of the great change that would 



THE PERSIAN IN VASIONS : MARA THON 99 

come over the Athenians if they became a naval power ; he 
thought it would unsettle them and make them prone 
to rash enterprises. The quarrel between the two rivals 
became so fierce that an ostracism was held, which went 
against Aristeides, and he was obliged to go away in banish- 
ment (b.c. 484). It is said that, while the voting was going 
on, a man who did not know Aristeides by sight asked him 
to write for him, as he himself could not write. Aristeides 
asked him what name he should write, and the man replied 
Aristeides, giving as his reason that he was tired of hearing 
him always called the Just. 

So Themistocles's measures were carried out ; the fleet was 
built, and a busy town began to spring up on the shores of 
the Peirseus. 



CHAPTEE XIII 

THE PERSIAN INVASIONS '. THERMOPYLAE AND SALAMIS 

Date, B.C. 480. 

Chief Names. — Xerxes, Leonidas, Themistocles, Aristeides, 
Eurybiades. 

In the spring of the year B.C. 481 levies from all quarters of 
the vast Persian Empire were assembling on the plain of 
Critalla, in Cappadocia ; by the autumn the muster was 
complete. No less than forty-six nations are said to have 
sent their warriors to fight under the banner of the Great 
King, and many of them were mere savages, with painted 
bodies and clad in skins ; some were armed with stakes 
hardened in the fire, or flint-tipped arrows, one tribe even 
with daggers and lassos. From Critalla the army advanced 
to Sardis, and there spent the winter ; and Xerxes sent 
heralds thence to Greece to demand earth and water from 
all the states except Sparta and Athens. 

Meanwhile two great works connected with the invasion 
were being carried out ; as it was obviously impossible to 
put so enormous a force on shipboard, Xerxes determined to 
follow Mardonius's march through Thrace ; but he did not 
wish to run the risk of having his fleet wrecked on Mount 
Athos, and therefore had a canal about a mile and a half 
long cut through the narrow isthmus which joins it to the 
mainland. It was the fashion of later writers to throw 
ridicule on the story of this canal, but recent researches 
100 



THE PERSIAN INVASIONS— CONTINUED 101 

have jshown distinct traces of it. Secondly, to convey the 
army across the Hellespont without wasting time by em- 
barking and disembarking it, two bridges of ships were 
constructed nearly a mile long between the towns of Abydos 
and Sestos. Hardly, however, were the bridges completed 
when a storm swept them away ; Xerxes in a fury had the 
unfortunate engineers beheaded, and, if we are to believe the 
account of Herodotus, ordered the Hellespont to be flogged 
and chains to be flung into it, as a punishment for its 
insolence. Then fresh engineers rebuilt the bridges double 
as strong as before. 

In the spring of b.c. 480 the Persian army started on the 
march that was to lead it into Greece. At Abydos, on the 
Hellespont, it was joined by the fleet, 1200 ships furnished 
by the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Cilicians, and Asiatic Greeks, 
who were thus obliged to aid in the enslaving of their 
brothers. Here an ivory throne was erected for Xerxes on 
a hill, that he might gratify his pride by the survey of the 
multitudes that owned his sway ; but when he saw the 
Hellespont crowded with his triremes, and all the country 
round Abydos swarming with his troops, he is said to have 
burst into tears at the thought that in a hundred years not 
a man among them all would be alive. Protected by the 
fleet, the army now crossed by the bridges, the troops by 
one, the baggage by the other. The crossing began at sun- 
rise, Xerxes himself offering up prayers and libations for 
the success of his enterprise, and lasted seven days and 
seven nights. The third Persian Invasion had begun. 

Through the Chersonese and along the southern shore of 
Thrace the march continued till the River Hebrus was 
crossed, and the plain of Doriscus was reached ; there 
Xerxes reviewed his army, and wishing to ascertain its 
numbers, adopted the following plan : ten thousand men 
were packed together as closely as possible ; and a wall was 
built round the space which they occupied ; the enclosure 



102 HISTORY OF GREECE 

was then filled over and over again by the rest of the army 
until the whole had passed through. Thus it was known 
how many times ten thousand there were. The infantry is 
said to have numbered 1,700,000, which, with the cavalry 
and the men on board the fleet, would have amounted to 
about two and a half millions ; but these numbers must 
be greatly exaggerated, as with the camp-followers and other 
non-combatants said to have been more than the fighting 
men, the whole force which crossed the Grecian frontier 
would have been over five million men, considerably more 
than the whole population of Greece. 

Xerxes now continued his march through Thrace, forcing 
all the tribes on his route to join him. Large stores of food 
had been collected at different points along the coast, so 
that he was able to feed his vast numbers ; but some of the 
rivers which supplied him with water are said to have been 
dried up, and many a city which had been ordered to furnish 
supplies was brought to the verge of ruin. A citizen of 
the town of Abdera is said to have remarked that it was 
fortunate that the Great King only ate bread at one meal in 
the day, otherwise the city would have been utterly ruined. 

The fleet followed the march, and passing safely through 
the Mount Athos Canal, rounded the peninsula of Chalcidice, 
and rejoined the land forces at Therma in Macedonia ; 
here a prolonged halt was made, and the armament lay en- 
camped along the shore for a distance of twenty-five miles. 

At Therma the heralds who had been sent from Sardis in 
the winter returned to Xerxes, bringing earth and water 
from all the states north of the Isthmus except Athens, 
Phocis, and the little cities of Plataea and Thespia?. 

We must now turn to the doings of the Greeks. News 
of the immense preparations for the invasion of their 
country had of course reached them, and in the autumn of 
B.C. 481 the Spartans and Athenians summoned a Congress 
to meet at the Isthmus of Corinth to discuss the means 



THE PERSIAN INVASIONS-CONTINUED 103 

of defence, which was attended by most states ; Argos, 
from jealousy of Sparta, and Thebes, from hatred to 
Athens, held aloof. It was agreed that all quarrels such 
as those between Athens and iEgina should cease, that 
spies should be sent to Asia to find out the strength of 
Xerxes's army, that Argos should be requested to join the 
confederates, and that envoys should be sent to Gelo, 
tyrant of Syracuse, and to the islands of Corcyra and Crete 
to ask them to come to the aid of their mother-country. 
The Argives still refused, because they could not have equal 
command with the Spartans ; but it is doubtful whether 
they actually submitted to the Persians ; they are not 
mentioned as having sent earth and water. Gelo would not 
come unless he were allowed to hold the chief command, 
which was out of the question ; the Cretans were prevented 
by an oracle ; the Corcyrseans promised aid, and, when the 
time came, despatched a fleet of sixty ships, but ordered 
them not to pass Cape Malea till after the battle, pretend- 
ing that the wind delayed them. The spies were discovered 
in the camp at Sardis, but Xerxes had them conducted 
through the whole encampment, and then dismissed them un- 
hurt. In the winter came the heralds from Sardis demand- 
ing earth and water. Fear and despondency reigned supreme ; 
the Athenians had indeed vanquished the army of Darius at 
Marathon, but this host seemed invincible in its numbers. 

In their despair the Greeks had recourse to the oracles. 
The Athenians sent envoys to Delphi, but the answer 
which they received was most alarming : ' Wretched men, 5 
said the priestess, ' leave your homes and flee afar ; fire 
and sword shall destroy your city and the temples of the 
gods/ The envoys, horrorstruck, entreated for a better 
reply, on which the priestess replied, ' Pallas Athene cannot 
entreat Zeus for you ; but he grants that, when all else is 
destroyed, the wooden wall shall protect you. Divine 
Salamis will make women childless.' 



104 HISTORY OF GREECE 

The Spartans also inquired of the oracle, and were told, 
' Either your mighty city is destroyed by the Persians, or 
you will mourn the death of one of your kings.' 

In the spring of B.C. 480, it was known that the march of 
the invading host had begun. The question now arose at 
what point it should be resisted ; and, at the earnest entreaty 
of the Thessalians, who had not as yet submitted to the 
Persians, a force of ten thousand men was sent under the 
Spartan Euaenetus and the Athenian Themistocles to occupy 
the pass of Tempe, between Macedonia and Thessaly (see 
p. 9 and map). They held the pass for some days ; but, 
discovering that there were other passes over the hills to 
the west, by which it was Xerxes's intention to cross, 
and also that he could land troops in their rear, they 
abandoned Tempe without waiting to be attacked, and 
sailed back to the Isthmus. The Thessalians, thus left 
defenceless, made their submission to Xerxes, and sent 
earth and water, as has been already mentioned ; where- 
upon the Phocians, who had long been the foes of the 
Thessalians, decided to take the Greek side, and so refused 
earth and water ; such was the selfishness which many of 
the Greeks displayed in this time of danger. 

For some time the Congress took no further steps ; but, 
when news came that Xerxes was at Therma, it was 
absolutely necessary to come to some decision. The next 
two points where resistance could be made were the Pass 
of Thermopylae, between Thessaly and Phocis, and the 
Isthmus itself. The real wish of the Peloponnesians was 
to hold the Isthmus, for they were afraid to fight so far 
away as Thermopylae ; but that course would leave Athens 
and the other states north of the Isthmus defenceless, and 
enable the Thebans to join the enemy. So it was decided 
to hold Thermopylae ; but the Olympic Games and a Dorian 
festival to Apollo were now being celebrated, and, just as 
before Marathon ten years previously, this was pleaded as an 



THE PERSIAN INVASIONS— CONTINUED 105 

excuse for not sending out the full force ; Leonidas, however, 
one of the kings of Sparta, was ordered to march to Thermo- 
pylae with what troops he could muster. He collected 300 
Spartans with their attendant Helots, and about 1500 other 
Peloponnesians ; on his march he was joined by small 
contingents from Corinth and other towns, and by 700 
Thespians, and he forced the Thebans to send 400 men as 
a guarantee of their loyalty. The Phocians and Locrians 
sent larger contingents, as they would be the first to suffer 
should Thermopylae be lost. Leonidas thus occupied the 




THERMOPYLAE AND ARTEMISIUM 



pass with about 10,000 men, which he proclaimed was only 
the advance guard of the main Peloponnesian army. 

The famous pass of Thermopylae is about two miles long ; 
the road, which in parts was only wide enough for a single 
carriage, runs between inaccessible cliffs 800 feet high, 
spurs of Mount (Eta, and the Malian Gulf ; in the present 
day, owing to the accumulation of earth brought down by 
the Kiver Spercheus, the sea has receded, and the pass has 
become a broad plain. The name Thermopylae (Hot Gates) 



106 HISTORY OF GREECE 

was derived from some hot springs which lay in the middle 
of the pass. Leonidas pitched his camp in rear of the hot 
springs, close by an old wall, which the Phocians had built 
in days gone by to keep out Thessalian invaders. He dis- 
covered, however, that there was a difficult track over the 
mountain ridge by which a body of troops could descend in 
rear of the pass ; to hold this he posted the Phocians on the 
top of the ridge. Meanwhile, to protect the pass against an 
attack by sea, the fleet was stationed off Artemisium, the 
northern promontory of Eubcea, which is only two and a 
half miles from the Thessalian coast. The fleet numbered 
271 triremes, of which 127 were Athenian, under Themis - 
tocles, 40 were Corinthian, and 10 were Spartan ; but 
Themistocles patriotically allowed the Spartan Eurybiades 
to have the chief command. 

By this time Xerxes had broken up his camp at Therma 
and advanced through Thessaly ; the submission of the 
Thessalians had led him to suppose that he would meet 
with no resistance ; great was his surprise, therefore, when 
he heard that Thermopylae was occupied. He halted at the 
city of Trachis and waited four days, expecting that the 
sight of his numbers would cause Leonidas to surrender. 

There were several stories current among the Greeks 
about the events of these days of waiting. Xerxes, it is 
said, sent a trooper to see what the Spartans were doing, 
who brought back news that he saw several combing their 
long hair and engaged in gymnastic exercises ; and when 
Xerxes was astonished, Demaratus, the Spartan king (p. 
78), who had been deposed and fled to the Persians, told 
him that it was the Spartan custom to comb their hair with 
particular care when about to risk their lives in a desperate 
enterprise. And a Spartan being told by a Persian that 
their army was so numerous that the arrows would conceal 
the sun, replied, ' So much the better ; we shall fight in the 
shade.' 



THE PERSIAN INVASIONS— CONTINUED 107 

On the fifth clay Xerxes, without waiting for the assist- 
ance of his fleet, which was now engaged with the Greek 
fleet at Artemisium, sent forward a division of his army 
with orders, it is said, to take the Greeks prisoners, and the 
battle of Thermopylae began. In the narrow pass numbers 
were of no avail against the superior arms and discipline of 
the Greeks. The first assailants were repulsed with heavy 
loss, and the 'Immortals' (the king's body-guard of ten 
thousand Persians, so called because their numbers were 
never allowed to diminish) who succeeded met with no better 
fate. Thrice Xerxes is said to have leapt in rage from the 
throne, from which he was watching the fight. All next 




THE PASS OF THERMOPYLAE 



day the fight went on, division after division was hurled 
against the Greeks in the hope of tiring them out by the 
continual attacks, but all was of no avail, and by the even- 
ing Xerxes was in despair. Then a countryman named 
Ephialtes came and told him of the mountain path by 
which the pass could be turned ; Xerxes was delighted and 
sent off the Immortals at once, and by midnight they 
reached the top of the ridge where the Phocians were 



108 HISTORY OF GREECE 

posted. Taken by surprise the Phocians abandoned their 
important post and fell back to the higher ground ; the 
Persians took no further notice of them, but pursued their 
march along the path. 

Great was the alarm in the Greek camp when the morn- 
ing brought the news that the Persians were descending in 
their rear. It was hopeless to think any more of defending 
the pass ; Leonidas and his Spartans had only one course 
open to them, to die at their post. However, he gave out 
that any of the allies except the Thebans might retire while 
there was time ; and all, with the exception of the 700 
Thespians, availed themselves of the permission ; they alone 
stayed to die with the Spartans. Two Spartans lay sick in 
the camp : one seized his arms and went out to share his 
comrades' fate ; the other named Aristodemus stayed 
behind and so escaped, but on his return to Sparta he was 
shunned by his fellow- citizens as a coward. 

The battle began. Leonidas with his little force left his 
position and charged boldly into the midst of the Persian 
army. Terrible was the slaughter inflicted by the Greeks : 
many of the Persians were driven into the sea, others 
were trodden under foot by the troops in the rear, who 
were forced into the fight by whips, according to the 
Persian custom. But Leonidas and many of the Greeks 
fell too ; the Immortals were now advancing in their rear, 
and the survivors retreated to a hillock where they were all 
shot down by the light troops, except the Thebans, who 
took the earliest opportunity of surrendering. Such was 
the ever-memorable battle of Thermopylae. The pass was 
indeed lost, and the road into Greece lay open ; but 20,000 
barbarians had been slain ; while Leonidas and his Spartans 
by their deaths won a deathless renown ; and their splendid 
self-sacrifice taught Xerxes how worthless his Asiatic hordes 
were against their new adversaries. 

The oracle had been fulfilled, a king of Sparta had fallen. 



THE PERSIAN INVASIONS— CONTINUED 109 

After the war the Spartans erected a lion at Thermopylae 
to Leonidas, and a monument with an inscription to the 
following effect : — 

1 Go tell the Spartans, thou that passest by, 
That here obedient to their laws we lie.' 

During the fighting at Thermopylae the fleets had also 
been engaged at Artemisium, but with less decisive results. 
As the Persian fleet advanced, its advanced guard of ten 
triremes captured or destroyed three Greek triremes who 
were watching for them. This so alarmed the Greeks that 
the whole fleet fled from Artemisium down the strait of 
Eubcea to Chalcis, where the strait is only forty yards wide, 
thus leaving Thermopylae open to an attack by sea. But 
before the Persian fleet had rounded the southern end of 
Thessaly it was exposed to a gale for three days which 
destroyed 400 triremes. When the Greeks, who in the 
narrow strait had not suffered from the gale, heard of the 
disaster they took heart and returned to their old position 
at Artemisium. The sight, however, of the Persian fleet, 
which now lay opposite, filled them with such terror that 
they again thought of retreating ; whereupon the Eubceans 
offered thirty talents to Themistocles if he would keep the 
fleet at Artemisium. Themistocles gave three talents to 
Eurybiacles and two to Adeimantus, the Corinthian, and 
they agreed to stay. The Persian admiral, wishing to 
capture the Greek fleet without fighting, sent a squadron of 
two hundred to sail round Eubcea so as to cut off their 
retreat. Hearing of this, the Greeks put out and attacked 
the Persians much to their surprise ; the battle was in- 
decisive, but the Greeks took thirty ships. The next night 
brought another storm which dashed the two hundred 
Persian ships to pieces against the cliffs of Eubcea. This 
news, and the arrival of fifty-three more Athenian ships, en- 
couraged the Greeks still further to hold their ground. Two 



I io HIS TOR Y OF GREECE 

days after the first encounter the Persians attacked in full 
force, a long and desperate battle took place, again with 
no decisive result ; the losses on both sides were heavy ; 
but the Greek fleet was so much damaged that retreat was 
now necessary, when news came of the capture of Ther- 
mopylae. That settled the question. The fleet abandoned 
Artemisium and made with all speed for the Isthmus. It 
is said that, as it sailed down the Strait of Eubcea, Theinis- 
tocles set up inscriptions along the coast calling on the 
Ionians not to fight against their fatherland. Eubcea, thus 
left unprotected, was obliged to submit to Xerxes. 

The Peloponnesian army was now at the Isthmus, for the 
festivals were at last over ; and when the terrible news 
from Thermopylae arrived it was determined to hold and 
fortify the Isthmus as the next line of defence. 

The greatest consternation prevailed at Athens, thus 
abandoned to the enemy. But Themistocles encouraged his 
fellow-countrymen and persuaded them to leave their city, 
telling them that the wooden wall to which the oracle bade 
them trust was their fleet ; a few, however, taking the words 
of the oracle literally, fortified themselves in the Acropolis 
with a wooden palisade. The Council of the Areopagus 
also came to the rescue ; it induced the wavering crews 
to go on board, by providing them with pay ; and, by its 
patriotic conduct all through this critical time, regained 
much of its old authority. The fleet was employed con- 
veying the Athenians with their families and possessions 
to places of safety, some to the islands of Salamis and iEgina, 
others to Trcezen, in Argolis. It then took up its station 
in the land-locked bay of Salamis to protect the Isthmus 
from an attack by sea. 

As the Persians advanced from Thermopylae most of 
the states followed the example of Thebes and submitted. 
The Phocians, however, fled for refuge to the mountains, 
and their land was devastated ; the Thespians, too, and 



THE PERSIAN INVASIONS— CONTINUED in 

Plataeans abandoned their towns, which were burnt at the 
instigation of the Thebans. Xerxes sent a force to seize the 
oracle of Delphi, but Apollo is said to have protected his 
shrine by hurling down rocks from the peaks of Parnassus, 
and by other portents ; and the invaders fled in terror. 

At length the Persian host reached the deserted city of 
Athens and the fleet took up its station in the bay of 
Phalerum, about five miles distant ^from the Greek fleet. 
The defenders of the Acropolis resisted for some days till 
some Persian soldiers climbed up by a difficult way and 
slew them all. Xerxes burnt the city, temples and all, and 
sent off a messenger to Susa to announce his success. It 
only now remained to conquer the Greek fleet ; the Isthmus 
could then be no longer held, and the Peloponnese would lie 
open to him. 

The Greek fleet had been reinforced since Artemisium, 
and now numbered three hundred and eighty ships, of 
which one hundred and eighty were Athenian. But the 
commanders, with the exception of Themistocles, were as 
timid as ever. The sight of burning Athens filled them 
with panic, and at a council of war they decided to 
retreat from Salamis to the Isthmus ; but Themistocles, 
fearing that if a retreat were begun it would end in 
the various contingents breaking up and returning to their 
own homes, persuaded Eurybiades to call another council 
of war at night. The discussion was long and angry ; at 
last the Corinthian, Adeimantus, insultingly told Themis- 
tocles that he had no right to speak, as he had no country ; 
Themistocles replied that the hundred and eighty Athenian 
ships were a proof that he had a country ; and he declared 
that if the fleet did not stay at Salamis the Athenians would 
abandon Greece altogether and sail away to found a new 
city in Italy. This last threat convinced Eurybiades, and 
it was decided to fight at Salamis. But, in spite of this 
decision, there was still a strong feeling among the generals 



112 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



against fighting at Salamis ; a third council was held, and 
another angry discussion took place. At last Themistocles, 
despairing of persuading the majority of his colleagues, took 
a desperate resolve : he sent a trusty slave to the Persian 
fleet with the following message : ' Themistocles, who is at 
heart the friend of the Persians, has sent me to tell you that 
the Greeks are in great terror and preparing to fly ; and 
they are so disunited that if you attack at once you will 
gain an easy victory.' Xerxes also had held a council of 
war in which all his commanders were in favour of a sea 



Battle of SALAMIS. 

Eleusis 



... Greek Fleet 
-. Persian Fleet 




fight except Artemisia, queen of Halicarnassus, a Dorian 
city of Asia Minor, who foresaw the danger of fighting in 
such narrow waters. Xerxes, confident in his numbers, 
determined to fight, and his decision was confirmed by the 
arrival of the messenger in the evening from Themistocles. 
By the next morning the whole Persian fleet lined the 
Attic shore opposite Salamis, thus blocking both entrances 
to the bay in which the Greek fleet lay. 

The discussion in the Greek council was prolonged into 
night, when the exiled Aristeides arrived, and sending for 
his old rival Themistocles told him that the Persians had 



THE PERSIAN INVASIONS— CONTINUED 1 1 3 

surrounded the Greeks. Themistocles, delighted to hear 
that his stratagem had succeeded, sent him into the 
council ; but the other generals would not believe him. 
Soon, however, the news was confirmed by the arrival of an 
Ionian trireme which had deserted from the Persians ; and 
the generals, at last convinced, prepared to fight. In the 
morning the Greeks beheld the whole Persian fleet drawn up 
against them from mouth to mouth of the bay ; their only 
hope now lay in fighting, and on the issue of that day hung 
the fate of Greece. 

The Persian fleet, in spite of its losses, still numbered 
nearly a thousand ships, owing tu reinforcements. It was 
about to fight under the eyes of Xerxes himself, for whom a 
throne had been erected on the heights of the Attic shore ; 
beneath him was the camp of the Persian army. As the 
Persian fleet advanced the Greeks were at first seized with 
panic and backed towards the shore, but the example of 
one or two captains revived their courage and they boldly 
charged the advancing foe. For some hours the . conflict 
raged, but at length the superior discipline of the Greeks 
began to tell. The Phoenicians fought well, but, as Themis- 
tocles foresaw, in the narrow waters their numbers only 
increased their confusion ; several of the Ionians were luke- 
warm. Xerxes's brother who commanded was killed ; and 
in the evening the Persian fleet, shattered and discomfited, 
fled back to the bay of Phalerum with a loss of over 
two hundred ships. The Greeks had lost forty. Thus a 
second time the energy of Athens had saved Greece : the 
real victor at Salamis was Themistocles. 

The defeat of his fleet before his own eyes plunged Xerxes 
from the height of confidence to the depth of despair. His 
land army was still unconquered, and his fleet was still 
superior in numbers, but he began to think about his own 
safety ; a second defeat might endanger his retreat. Mar- 
donius, who, having originally advised the expedition, knew 

H 



1 1 4 HIS TOR Y OF GREE CE 

that if it failed his life would be in danger, suggested to 
him that he had gained one great success by the conquest 
of Athens, and could therefore return with glory to Persia ; 
he himself with three hundred thousand picked men would 
undertake to subdue the rest of Greece. Xerxes determined 
to adopt the suggestion, especially as a message came from 
Themistocles saying that the Greeks were about to send 
ships to the Hellespont to destroy the bridges, a course 
which he had himself proposed, but Eurybiades, as usual, 
had refused to adopt. 

The fleet therefore set sail from Phalerum by night for 
the Hellespont. Xerxes followed with the bulk of the 
army by the long and wearisome land-route through Thrace, 
during which his losses from disease and famine were 
enormous ; he found the bridges over the Hellespont broken 
again by a storm, but the fleet was there to convey the 
troops across. The remnants of the army wintered at Sardis. 
Xerxes in time returned to Susa, and strove to forget his 
disappointment in the luxurious delights of his court. 
Mardonius with his forces took up his winter quarters in 
Thessaly, as it was now too late to attempt a fresh cam- 
paign. A reserve of 60,000 men also lay in Macedonia 
under a general named Artabazus. 

The Greeks who, after the battle of Salamis, had begun 
to prepare for another engagement, on discovering the retreat 
of the Persian fleet, pursued them for some distance without 
success ; they then spent the rest of the year sailing about 
among the islands, compelling them to throw off their allegi- 
ance to Persia. 

The Greeks, as was their habit, assigned prizes to the 
most deserving states and individuals : of the states iEgina 
obtained the first prize, Athens, strange to say, only the 
second, the Dorians of the Peloponnese thus preferring their 
own kinsmen to the Ionian Athenians. The first prize 
for individual bravery was divided between two men, an 



THE PERSIAN INVASIONS-CONTINUED 1 1 5 

Athenian and an iEginetan. The voting for the prize for 
generalship produced a strange result : each commander 
gave the first prize to himself, the second to Themistocles. 

While the Greeks of the mother-country were battling 
for their existence against the Persian Empire, in the west 
their kinsmen in Sicily were similarly engaged against the 
Phoenician Empire of Carthage. Taking advantage of dis- 
sensions among them, Hamilcar, a Carthaginian general, 
landed with an army said to have consisted of 300,000 
men, and besieged the important town of Himera. Gelo, 
the tyrant of Syracuse, having luckily been refused the 
chief command in Greece against the Persians, marched to 
its relief, and on the very day of the battle of Salamis, so 
tradition says, totally defeated the Carthaginians, Hamilcar 
himself being slain. The Carthaginians proved in the end 
more formidable enemies than the Persians, and we shall 
hear of them again in Sicily later on. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE PERSIAN INVASIONS : PLAT^EA AND MYCALE 

Dates, B.C. 

Battles of Plataea and Mycale, . . . 479 
Capture of Byzantium, recall of Pausanias, . 478 

Chief Names. — Mardonius, Pausanias, Aristeides, Cimon. 

The year b.c. 479 opened under happier auspices than the 
preceding one. The Athenians had returned to their city in 
the winter and were beginning to rebuild their ruined homes ; 
all that remained was for the united Greek forces to take 
the field against Mardonius ; Thermopylae and Marathon 
were sufficient proof of the superiority of the Greeks over 
the Asiatics to make the victory certain. 

But timidity and irresolution still prevailed at Sparta ; the 
fleet under the Spartan king, Leoty chides, was indeed sent 
into the iEgean, but it got no further than the island of Delos, 
where it lay inactive, attempting nothing to aid the Asiatic 
Greeks to throw off the Persian yoke. At home the 
Spartans made no attempt to take the offensive ; their only 
thought still was to remain on the defensive behind the 
fortifications of the Isthmus. Mardonius was now moving 
south from Thessaly, and the outlook for the Athenians 
was a dark one ; when Alexander, king of Macedon, came 
offering them most favourable terms from Mardonius if they 
would abandon the Greeks. The Athenians, of course, 
rejected the offer and clung to their ruined city, for they 
116 



THE PERSIAN INVASIONS— CONTINUED 117 

could not believe that the Spartans, who had sent envoys 
begging them not to yield, would really desert them. But 
no help came, Mardonius was now in Boeotia, and the 
Athenians — to the eternal disgrace of Sparta — were com- 
pelled to leave their city, which fell a second time into the 
hands of the Persians. 

Exasperated by this treatment, the Athenians sent 
envoys to Sparta with bitter complaints, and saying that 
even now, if reduced to desperation, they might accept the 
Persian terms. Still the Spartans did nothing but make 
vague promises ; as usual a festival was being celebrated 
which prevented any active steps being taken. But at last 
an Arcadian of Tegea pointed out that the fortifications at 
the Isthmus would be of little use if the Athenian fleet were 
on the Persian side. This argument convinced the Spartans ; 
Pausanias, who was acting as regent for the infant son of 
his uncle Leonidas, was despatched that very night with 
five thousand Spartans and five thousand Lacedaemonians 
to Corinth, where the whole Peloponnesian army began to 
assemble. When all the contingents had joined, Pausanias 
advanced into Attica, where he was joined by eight 
thousand Athenians under Aristeides. The united Greek 
army now numbered nearty forty thousand hoplites and 
seventy thousand light troops, making a total of about a 
hundred and ten thousand, the largest force that Greece 
ever put in the field. One cannot but wonder what would 
have been the result if such a force had been at Thermopylae 
with Leonidas. 

When Mardonius heard of the advance of the Greeks he 
vented his spite on Athens by destroying what there still 
Was to destroy, and then retired over Mount Cithaeron into 
Boeotia, where he thought the level plain would give his 
cavalry the advantage ; for the best cavalry of the Greeks, 
the Thessalians and Thebans, were now on the side of the 
Persians. There he fortified a camp on the north of the 



II*! 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



little river Asopus, separated from the town of Platsea by a 
plain about four miles broad. Pausanias followed the 
Persians, and from fear of the cavalry halted on the 
northern spurs of Cithseron, overlooking the Asopus valley. 
The Spartans and other Lacedaemonians were on the right, 
the Athenians on the left, the Peloponnesians and other allies 




in the centre. In spite of the strong position of the Greeks 
Mardonius launched his cavalry against them ; they were 
successful at first, but were finally repulsed by the Athenians 
with the loss of their commander, whose body was paraded 
in triumph through the Greek army Emboldened by his 
success Pausanias moved down from the high ground and 



THE PERSIAN INVASIONS— CONTINUED 119 

took up a position in the plain between the Asopus and 
Plataea, where there was a better camping ground and a con- 
venient spring of water. For ten days the armies faced one 
another, neither Persians nor Greeks venturing to attack, 
for the omens on both sides were unfavourable, and the com- 
manders were not confident of success ; but the Persian 
cavalry gave great annoyance to the Greeks by cutting off 
their supplies which came over Mount Cithasron, and at last 
prevented them from using the spring of water. 

Pausanias therefore ordered the army to fall back by 
night to a position nearer Platsea, where water was easier 
to get and safer from the Persian cavalry. But the move- 
ment was badly executed ; the centre, by mistake, fell back 
close under the walls of Platsea ; the right was unable to 
begin their inarch till daybreak, owing to the obstinacy of 
a single Spartan officer, who refused to retire ; while the 
Athenians on the left waited for the Spartans to start. The 
morning therefore revealed to the astonished Persians the 
Greeks retiring in disorder ; thinking they were in full 
retreat, Mardonius hurried out in pursuit without waiting 
to draw up his troops properly. Artabazus, who had now 
joined the main army, was against fighting. 

Mardonius soon overtook the Lacedsemonians, who halted 
and faced about to receive the attack. For some time 
Pausanias remained on the defensive, and sent to the 
Athenians to come to his assistance ; but they were some 
distance off on his left engaged with the Thebans. At 
last he plucked up his courage and ordered the charge ; 
the onset of the Spartans decided the battle, the lightly- 
clad Persians, as usual, could not withstand their heavily- 
armed assailants, numbers were of no avail ; for some 
time they struggled bravely, but the fall of Mardonius was 
the signal for a general flight. Artabazus, who saw his 
predictions of defeat realised, retreated with his reserve of 
forty thousand men without striking a blow. The confused 



izo HISTORY OF GREECE 

mass of Asiatics fled to their camp, which was assailed 
without success by the Spartans. But the Athenians, who 
had by this time worsted the Thebans after a desperate 
engagement, now came to the aid of the Spartans, and, 
being more skilled in attacking fortifications, soon gained 
an entrance ; the Greek centre having heard of the issue 
of the fight also came up, and the whole army was en- 
gaged in slaughtering the helpless mass of barbarians like 
sheep : hardly any escaped ; of the Greeks only thirteen 
hundred and sixty fell. Among the Spartan dead was 
Aristodemus the survivor of Thermopylae, who, unable to 
endure his disgrace at Sparta, rushed forward from the 
ranks and was slain fighting desperately. Artabaz.us reached 
Thessaly, and prevented the Thessalians from attacking him 
by giving out that Mardonius was only a few marches 
behind : thus he effected his retreat. 

The battle of Plat sea was the end of the Persian invasions 
of Greece. They had failed, owing to the utter inability 
of the Asiatics to stand against the Greeks in the field. 
But though brave enough when forced to fight, the Greeks 
showed such timidity and irresolution to meet their foes, in 
spite of the lessons of Marathon and Thermopylae, that had 
it not been for the moral courage and determination of the 
Athenians in spurring them on, they would probably have 
succumbed. 

The victors spent a few days in burying the dead 
and dividing the spoil ; they then marched against 
Thebes. After a short siege the city surrendered ; as a 
punishment for having joined the Persians, it was deprived 
of its headship of Bceotia and compelled to surrender the 
leaders of what was called the ' Medizing ' party ; one of 
them escaped, but the rest were put to death by Pausanias. 
In memory of the battle Plataea was declared inviolable 
and was charged with the care of the tombs of the slain, 
and the different states bound themselves by an oath to 



THE PERSIAN INVASIONS—CONTINUED 121 

preserve for ever the freedom of its inhabitants ; how long 
that oath was kept will be seen hereafter. 

On the same day as Platsea another victory was won on 
the coast of Asia Minor. Leotychides, who, as has been 
said, had been lying inactive with the fleet at Delos, was 
at last persuaded to move by the Samians, who declared 
that all was ready for a revolt against the Persians. When 
the fleet reached Samos they found that the Persians, 
apparently distrusting their Ionian contingent, had retreated 
to the mainland and drawn their fleet ashore under the pro- 
montory of Mycale, near Miletus (see map, p. 89), with an 
army of sixty thousand men to protect it. Encouraged, 
according to the story, by miraculous news of the victory 
of Platsea, the Greeks forced a landing, and, led by the 
Athenians and Corinthians, gained a great victory on land 
and stormed the Persian camp. The ships were taken ; the 
Ionians now came over to the side of their fellow-country- 
men, and the flying Persians were assailed in the rear by the 
men of Miletus, who had been posted to protect their retreat. 

After this decisive battle the Greeks of the islands and 
coast cities were eager to throw off the Persian yoke ; 
the only question was about their protection in the future. 
Leotychides was willing to accept the islands as allies ; 
but, with the usual Spartan timidity, he was afraid of 
the consequences of a land war against the Persians in 
Asia Minor, and so he refused to protect the coast 
cities, but offered instead to transport the inhabitants to 
Greece. The cities refused this offer and were supported 
in their refusal by the Athenians ; and the only result was 
the increase of the influence of Athens at the expense of 
Sparta. The fears of Leotychides proved to be groundless, 
for Xerxes was so cast down by his defeats that he gave 
up the struggle entirely ; he levied no more armies and 
made no more efforts to re-establish his empire over the 
Greeks of Asia Minor. 



122 HISTORY OF GREECE 

The fleet now sailed to the Hellespont to destroy the 
bridges, the destruction of which, though it had happened 
nearly a year before, was as yet unknown to the Greeks. 
Finding then work already done, the Peloponnesians 
returned home; the Athenians on the contrary remained 
and with the aid of the Ionians began the work of 
expelling the Persian garrisons from Europe. They be- 
sieged Sestos, the most important town on the Hellespont, 
and by the autumn starved it into surrender. That ended 
the fighting for the year ; the Persians were finding out 
that their attack on Greece had not only failed, but was 
recoiling on their own heads. 

The next year (b.c. 478) began a new era in the history 
of the Greeks ; hitherto they had been an insignificant 
collection of little states which had only preserved their 
independence amid the rise and fall of the great nations of 
the East owing to their isolated position, which made attack 
upon them difficult. Now, having emerged victorious from 
their struggle with the mighty empire of Persia, they took 
their place in the world as a people of brave enterprising 
freemen among nations sunk in sloth, the submissive slaves 
of an all-powerful despot. A great future lay before the 
Greeks, if they could only become a nation. But could 
they ? In Sparta they had a leader acknowledged almost 
universally as the head of Greece ; even Athens, as we have 
seen, served loyally under Sparta all through the terrible 
times of the invasion in spite of great provocation. But the 
statesmen of Sparta were blind ; they did not understand 
the change that had come upon the Greeks ; they thought 
that things would still go on as before ; satisfied with their 
present position they looked forward to nothing greater, 
and Sparta let the golden opportunity slip by. The only 
other state that could take her place was Athens ; Athens, 
by her energy and patriotism, was well qualified to weld 
the Greek states into a nation. But unfortunately she was 



THE PERSIAN INVASIONS— CONTINUED 123 

Ionian, and to an Ionian city the Dorians would never 
submit. Therefore her attempt was doomed to failure ; 
nevertheless she made it, and her attempt and failure make 
up the grandest part of Greek history. 

It was in this year (b.c. 478) that Sparta finally lost 
her opportunity. In spite of all her faults Athens still 
surrendered to her the command of the fleet that was to 
continue the war against Persia. Unfortunately for the 
Spartans, the admiral sent out by them was Pausanias, 
the victor of Platsea. His head had been turned by that 
victory, little credit for which really belonged to him ; 
he had grown contemptuous of the simple Spartan life, 
and in particular had given great offence by dedicating 
the offering, set up in Delphi in honour of the victory, 
in his own name instead of that of Sparta ; so angry 
were the Spartans that they erased his inscription and 
substituted a new one. In spite of this conduct Pausanias 
was allowed to command the fleet ; while the Athenian 
commanders were Aristeides and Cimon, the son of Milti- 
ades, a brave and skilful soldier. Thus at a most critical 
period, when the question of the revolted Greeks would 
have to be settled, the representatives of Athens were 
as good as that of Sparta was bad. The fleet was joined 
by contingents from the revolted Greeks of the iEgean. 
Its main object was the attack of the fortified towns still 
held by the Persians in Thrace, especially Byzantium, on 
the Bosphorus (see p. 54). Xerxes made no attempt to 
save Byzantium and it was compelled to surrender after 
a long siege. 

Pausanias was still further puffed up by this fresh success, 
and conceived the dream of making himself supreme over 
the Greeks as a sort of satrap of the Persians whom he had 
been sent to conquer. So he contrived that the chief officers 
taken at Byzantium, one of whom was royal blood, should 
escape back to Persia bearing a letter from him to Xerxes : 



124 HISTORY OF GREECE 

'Pausanias, the Spartan general, desiring to please thee 
sends thee back these prisoners. I am minded, if it please 
thee, to marry thy daughter and bring Sparta and the rest 
of Greece under thy sway. This, with thy aid, I hold 
myself able to do. If therefore my proposal be acceptable, 
send hither some confidential man through whom we may 
correspond.' Xerxes was delighted with the letter, he 
wrote a friendly reply and sent it by the hand of Artabazus, 
the general who escaped from Plat sea, appointing him satrap 
of the district of the Hellespont. 

Pausanias now began to behave as if he were already 
a Persian satrap and son-in-law of the great king ; he 
surrounded himself with a Persian body-guard and adopted 
Persian dress and custom. So outrageous was his behaviour 
towards those under his command that the Greeks of the 
iEgean turned for redress to the Athenians ; they had 
already begun to consider them their natural protectors 
owing to the action of the Spartans the preceding year, 
and the majority of them were Ionians and therefore of the 
same race as the Athenians. 

The authority of Pausanias was openly defied, and it is 
said that his ship was attacked by a Samian captain. But 
news of his conduct had reached Sparta, and he was recalled 
with his squadron to be put on his trial ; and when Dorcis 
his successor arrived, he found that the whole fleet 
acknowledged Aristeides as commander-in-chief. Dorcis, 
having too few ships to enforce his authority, sailed back 
to Greece. 

The Spartans made no further attempt to take part in the 
war in the ^Egean ; the war between the Greeks and Persia 
was ended, but it was succeeded by a war between Athens 
and Persia, the object of which was to free every Greek city 
from slavery to Persia. 



CHAPTER XV 



THE CONFEDERACY OF DELOS 



Dates. 
Foundation of the Confederacy of Delos 
Ostracism of Themistocles, . 
Death of Pausanias, 
Battle of Eurymedon, . 
Kevolt of Naxos, .... 
Flight of Themistocles to Persia, . 



B.C. 

477 
471 
469 
466 
466 
465 



Chief Names. — Aristeides, Cimon, Themistocles, Pausanias. 

Possessing the full confidence of the allies, and freed from 
the presence of the Spartans with their timidity and want 
of enterprise, the Athenian commanders now set to work on 
the task of rescuing the Asiatic Greeks from Persia and 
protecting them for the future. 

To this end it was decided to unite the islands of the 
iEgean and the Greek cities of the Thracian and Asiatic 
coasts into a league for common defence against Persia 
under the presidency of Athens. This league was called 
the Confederacy of Delos, because the treasury was in the 
temple of Apollo and Artemis in the island of Delos ; each 
state, including Athens, was to send deputies to the general 
assembly and contribute money, men, and ships to be 
employed in the war against Persia. The total of the 
contributions amounted to four hundred and sixty talents 
(about „£ 100,000) a year. It was a great advantage to Athens 

125 



126 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



that her representative at this important time was Aristeides, 
whose character for uprightness caused him to be universally 
trusted. 




CONFEDERACY OF DELOS 



The command of the fleet was to be in the hands of 
Athens. Thus Sparta lost her chance of the headship of 
all Greece ; and Athens, instead of being a single state and 



THE CONFEDERACY OF BEL OS 127 

ally of Sparta, became the head of a powerful naval 
confederacy. 

While Aristeides was thus laying the foundation of 
Athenian power in the iEgean, his ancient rival, Themis- 
tocles, was not less usefully employed in protecting the 
city against intrigues at home. 

• The Athenians had returned for the second time to their 
ruined city, and were engaged in rebuilding their homes. 
They now made their city larger than before, and by the 
advice of Themistocles began the construction of walls far 
stronger than the old ones, that they might never again be 
compelled to abandon it. But the work alarmed their 
neighbours, especially the Corinthians, who were jealous 
and afraid of the rapidly rising power of Athens. Sparta 
was appealed to, and ordered the Athenians to stop the 
work, declaring that a fortress outside the Isthmus would , 
be dangerous in the case of another Persian invasion, if it 
once happened to fall into the hands of the enemy. The 
Athenians, whose walls were not yet high enough for 
purposes of defence, were in despair how to answer the 
Spartans ; but Themistocles said to them : ' Continue 
building your walls, and send me to Sparta to explain ; 
give me two colleagues, but do not let them follow me till 
the walls are high enough. 5 So Themistocles went to 
Sparta ; but when he arrived he said that he could not 
discuss the matter till the arrival of his colleagues. Mean- 
while the other states complained to Sparta that the forti- 
fication was proceeding. Themistocles continually denied 
the fact, and finally suggested that the Spartans should 
send envoys to Athens to ascertain the truth. This the 
Spartans did, but he at the same time sent a private message 
to the Athenians to keep the envoys as hostages for the 
safety of himself and his colleagues. At last his colleagues 
arrived, and Themistocles then told the Spartans that he 
had deceived them ; the Athenians were fortifying their 



128 HISTORY OF GREECE 

city, and considered that they had a right to do so, and the 
walls were now strong enough to resist an attack. The 
Spartans, finding their duplicity outdone by the duplicity 
of Theniistocles, could make no further objection, and 
dared not avenge themselves on him because of their envoys 
at Athens. So Theniistocles returned to Athens, and the 
building of the walls was completed. But the feeling in 
the Peloponnese against Athens increased. 

Next, also by the advice of Theniistocles, the Peirseus 
(see p. 98), with the adjacent little harbour of Munychia, 
was enclosed by a wall higher and stronger even than the 
city wall, so that it would not require a numerous garrison 
for its defence. In time, a large trading and seafaring 
population grew up round the Peirseus, including many 
foreigners. 

For several years the forces of the Confederacy of Delos 
were engaged under the command of Cinion, the hero of 
this period of the war, in destroying the last traces of 
Persian rule on the coasts of the ^Egean. Xerxes seems to 
have been so dispirited by his failure in Greece that he 
made no efforts to resist his assailants. The details of these 
operations, with a few exceptions, have not come down to us. 
We hear of the obstinate resistance of the town of Eion, at 
the mouth of the River Strymon in Thrace ; when all the 
provisions were exhausted, the Persian governor, disdaining 
to surrender, burnt himself with his wives and children on 
a vast funeral pyre (b.c. 476). We shall hear of Eion and 
its neighbourhood several times in the history of Athens ; 
its position was one of great importance. 

Ten years afterwards Cimon won a great victory over 
the Persians. He sailed at the head of a fleet of three 
hundred ships to free the Greek cities in Lycia and Pam- 
phylia; a Persian fleet lay at the mouth of the River 
EurymSdon protected by a land force. Cinion totally 
defeated the fleet and army on the same day ; all the ships 



THE CONFEDERACY OF DELOS 129 

and much booty fell into his hands, and also eighty 
Phoenician ships that were coming as a reinforcement to 
the Persian fleet (b.c. 466). The Greek cities of Lycia 
and Pamphylia joined the Confederacy, and the island of 
Cyprus was the only important Greek territory left in the 
hands of the Persians, except the scattered colonies on the 
shores of the Euxine. 

The year after the battle of the Eurymedon, Xerxes was 
murdered in his bed by his chamberlain and the chief of 
his guard (b.c. 465) ; he reigned twenty years, long enough 
to see his great project of conquering Greece recoil upon his 
own head. He was succeeded by his son Artaxerxes, who was 
occupied in the opening years of his reign in defending his 
throne against his two brothers, one of whom he caused to 
be assassinated, and the other he defeated in battle. 

Meanwhile, the other great actors in the events of 
b.c. 480-479 were passing away. The treason of Pausanias 
at Byzantium, and its far-reaching consequences, have been 
already described (p. 124) ; his unhappy end must now be 
narrated. On reaching Sparta, after his recall from Byzan- 
tium (b.c. 478), he was put on his trial for 'Medism ; (that 
is, holding friendly relations with the Persians), but owing 
to his high position he was acquitted. So great, however, 
was the suspicion against him that he was not reappointed 
to his command, whereupon he returned to Byzantium as a 
volunteer. There he renewed his intrigues with the Persians 
so openly, that the Athenians were compelled to expel him 
from Byzantium by force. However, he remained near 
the Hellespont prosecuting his designs, until at last the 
Spartans sent a herald ordering him to return home at once 
on pain of being declared a public enemy. On his arrival 
at Sparta he was imprisoned by the Ephors, but released 
by the influence of his friends. Notwithstanding this 
warning, the infatuated man in the following years plunged 
still deeper into treason ; he not only continued his 

I 



130 HISTORY OF GREECE 

correspondence with Xerxes, but began to stir up the Helots 
to revolt, that by their aid he might make himself supreme 
in Sparta. These new intrigues in time came to the ears of 
the Ephors ; but they dared not arrest him, for a Spartan 
of the blood royal could not be accused on the mere word 
of a Helot. At last, however, a favourite slave of Pausanias, 
who was intrusted with a letter to convey to Persia, noticing 
that the bearers of these missives never returned, opened 
it, and found that it contained orders that he should be put 
to death, such being Pausanias's method to prevent the 
return of any witnesses of his treason. 

The slave carried the letter to the Ephors, who ordered 
him to flee for refuge to the temple of Poseidon at Tama- 
rum (p. 11) where two of their number concealed them- 
selves. Pausanias, hearing what his slave had done, came 
to the temple ; their conversation was overheard by the 
Ephors and the guilt of Pausanias was established out of 
his own mouth. On his return to Sparta the Ephors were 
about to arrest him in the street, but, on receiving a secret 
sign from a friend, he fled for refuge to the temjDle of 
Athene which was close at hand. While in the temple he 
could not of course be arrested ; so the Ephors blocked up the 
door, his mother laying the first stone, and starved him to 
death ; before he actually expired he was carried outside, so 
that they could say that the temple had not been polluted. 
Such was the end of the victor of Platsea (b.c. 469). 

Pausanias was not the only great Spartan convicted at 
this time of misbehaviour. The king, Leotychides, who 
commanded the fleet at Mycale, was a few years after that 
battle convicted of receiving bribes from the Thessalians, 
whom he had been sent to punish for joining the Persians. 
He was deposed and banished, B.C. 476, and died soon 
afterwards. At the time of Pausanias's death Themistocles 
was in exile at Argos. In spite of his incalculable services 
to his country, in founding her fleet, steering her safely 



THE CONFEDERACY OF BE LOS 131 

through the perils of the Persian invasion, and securing her 
against her rivals at home by his new fortifications, he had 
been ostracised (see p. 76) in the year B.C. 471. The 
cause of his ostracism is not clear, for very little is known 
of the political events at Athens during these years. Per- 
haps he was leading an attack on the Areopagus, the 
stronghold of the nobles, such as will be described ten 
years later. Or perhaps he was suspected of treasonable 
correspondence with Persia, which would not be impro- 
bable considering his conduct before and after Salamis. 
After the death of Pausanias, however, the Ephors, it is 
said, found in his correspondence proofs of the ' Medism ' of 
Themistocles ; and the Athenians at their request sent men 
to Argos to arrest him. But Themistocles was forewarned 
and fled to Corcyra ; thence after various adventures, at one 
time almost falling into the hands of the Athenian fleet at 
that time besieging Naxos, he reached Persia, and threw 
himself on the mercy of Artaxerxes who was now on the 
throne, promising, it is said, to aid him in subduing Greece. 
Artaxerxes, the story continues, received him kindly and 
assigned him the revenues of Magnesia (near Ephesus) 
and two other cities for his support. Themistocles lived 
at Magnesia till his death some years afterwards (about B.C. 
460), which some accounts say was self-inflicted owing to 
his inability to perform his promises made to Artaxerxes. 
He was a true Athenian, showing both the good and bad 
side of the character of that people, far-seeing, energetic, and 
full of resource, but wanting in straightforwardness and 
honesty. The history of his latter years is, as has been said, 
still a mystery ; but one thing is certain — history records 
many services rendered by him to his country, it does not 
record a single action really done by him against it. There 
is no reason to suppose that during his exile in Persia he 
ever actually intended to aid the Persian conquest of 
Greece. 



132 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Not long after the ostracism of Themistocles died his 
rival Aristeides; in spite of his long public life he died 
a poor man, a striking proof of his personal integrity. 
Besides his foundation of the Confederacy of Delos one 
other political measure is attributed to him, the admission 
of the Thetes or lowest class of citizens to the archonship. 
As all classes had suffered alike in the terrible time of the 
Persian invasion, it was felt just, after their restoration to 
their homes, that all should have the same rights. Thus 
the last two public acts of Aristeides were aimed at estab- 
lishing the power of his country abroad and concord at 
home. 

Cimon's great victory at the Eurymedon had fulfilled the 
object of the Confederacy of Delos by making the Greeks 
of the islands and coast of the iEgean secure from Persian 
reconquest. But as its work was accomplished a great 
change gradually came over the Confederacy itself. Many 
of the smaller states, weary of the continued burden of the 
war, had been permitted to pay a greater money tribute 
instead of personal service ; this greatly increased the 
power of Athens, for it made the Athenian contingent, 
strong as it had been before, far superior to the rest of the 
forces of the League. Moreover, at some period not exactly 
known, the Treasury of the League had been removed for 
safety from Delos to Athens on the suggestion of the 
Samians ; thus the control of the money passed from the 
members of the League into the hands of the Athenians. 
Lastly, the meetings at Delos seem to have been gradually 
discontinued. The members of the League found them- 
selves, instead of allies under the jDresidency of Athens, 
slowly but surely becoming her subjects. Even the very 
success of the League had a bad effect ; for in proportion as 
the danger from Persia passed away the need of the protec- 
tion of Athens was less and less felt, while, owing to the 
love of independence inborn in all Greeks, the yoke of 



THE CONFEDERACY OF DELOS 133 

her supremacy became more and more distasteful. Con- 
sequently many of the members began to refuse to pay the 
tribute for which they saw no need, and the Athenians, 
considering that their services entitled them to the money, 
used force to collect it : this increased the discontent. 

The first actual outbreak took place in B.C. 466, the very 
year of the battle of the Eurymedon. The large island of 
Naxos declared its intention of leaving the League. There 
was however no union among the discontented members of 
the League, and Naxos was left to brave Athens alone. 
Overwhelmed by superior forces it was after a long 
blockade compelled to surrender ; its fortifications were 
destroyed and it had to accept the position of a tributary 
subject of Athens. The next year Athens was involved in 
a dispute with another large island, Thasos, which lay off 
the Thracian Coast, opposite the town of Eion, which the 
Athenians had taken from the Persians (see p. 128). The 
Thasians complained that the Athenians were interfering 
with their rights in the trade of the district, and in the gold- 
mine of Mount Pangseus, near Eion. The dispute ended 
in war, and Cimon was sent with a large armament which 
defeated the Thasians and blockaded the island. At the 
same time a colony of 10,000 men was sent from Athens 
to a place called Nine Roads, three miles inland from Eion 
on the Eiver Strymon ; but the colonists were destroyed 
almost to a man by the barbarian Thracians of the district, 
and the colony was for a time abandoned. After two 
years Thasos was obliged to surrender and reduced to 
the same humiliating position as Naxos (b.c. 463). How 
or when the other members of the League were reduced 
there is no record. But, in ten years from this time, the 
only states which remained on their old footing of equality 
with Athens were the three large islands of Lesbos, Samos, 
and Chios : their ultimate fate is bound up with the history 
of Athens and will be narrated hereafter. 



134 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Thus, from being a single not over-powerful city, Athens 
had through her energy in the Persian wars, and the extra- 
ordinary want of energy of Sparta, become the mistress of 
an Empire extending over the whole iEgean, and by far 
the greatest naval state in Greece. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE REFORMS OF PERICLES 

Dates, b. c. 

Kevolt of the Helots at Sparta, .... 464 

Athens breaks with Sparta, 461 

Pericles and Ephialtes overthrow the Areopagus. 

Ostracism of Cimon, 460 

Chief Names, — Cimon, Pericles, Ephialtes. 

But little is known of events in Greece during these years. 
Sparta, whose prestige had probably suffered from the mis- 
conduct of Pausanias and Leotychides, and also perhaps 
from the rapid rise of Athens, was obliged to wage two 
severe wars to maintain her supremacy, one against her old 
enemy Argos and the other against her Arcadian allies ; 
however, she emerged from both of them victorious ; her 
statesmen might be weak and her kings commit treason, 
but her soldiers were still the best fighters in Greece. 

At Athens the excitement of the Persian invasion and 
the founding of the Confederacy of Delos had died down, 
and men's minds began to turn again to party politics. The 
most powerful politician at this time was Cimon, the leader 
of the party of the nobles ; he owed his power to his 
victories and his integrity ; his free and engaging manners 
also, and his great wealth which he expended most gener- 
ously, won him wide popularity. But the Democratic party, 
under a leader named Ephialtes, was now growing powerful 

135 



136 HISTORY OF GREECE 

and was eager to overthrow Cimon. Accordingly, on his 
return from the conquest of Thasos, he was prosecuted on the 
ground that after taking Thasos he ought to have attacked 
Macedonia, but was bribed by the king of Macedonia not 
to do so. His accuser was Pericles of the famous family of the 
Alcmseonidae (see p. 65), a rising member of the Democratic 
party. His father, Xanthippus, had successfully prosecuted 
Miltiades, Cimon's father ; but on this occasion the pro- 
secution failed, probably deservedly. Thus the Democrats 
were defeated in their first attack on Cimon ; but his fall 
came not long afterwards ; it was occasioned by the 
question of alliance with Sparta, about which the two 
parties had diametrically opposite views. 

Cimon held that the proper policy for Athens was to 
remain friends with Sparta and acknowledge her headship 
in Greece, while extending her own power by sea : thus 
the two great states united would always be able to repel 
the Persian or any other foreign invader. The Democratic 
party, distrustful of Sparta because of her selfish treatment 
of Athens during the Persian wars, and also at the time of 
the building of the walls, and intoxicated by the wonderful 
rise of their country's power, wanted to break with her 
and found a great empire by land as well as sea. Of 
these two policies that of Cimon was undoubtedly safer for 
Athens, but also better for the peace and interests of 
Greece, if it had been possible. But, unfortunately ' for 
Athens and Greece, Sparta with her usual blind folly made 
it impossible. 

The Spartans had long been regarding the rapid growth 
of Athens with suspicion ; indeed, during the blockade of 
Thasos, when the Thasians had applied to them for help 
they had actually agreed to invade Attica, though at that 
time at peace with Athens. But, before the army could start, 
a terrible earthquake occurred at Sparta ; a large part of 
the town was destroyed and many persons perished. This 



THE REFORMS OF PERICLES 137 

earthquake was considered to be caused by the wrath of the 
god Poseidon (Neptune), the 'Earth-shaker,' because some 
insurgent Helots who had sought sanctuary in his temple 
had been dragged away and slain, a gross violation of the 
sanctity of temples which, as we have seen, was avoided in 
the case of Pausanias. Encouraged by this earthquake, the 
whole body of Helots and Messenians rose in revolt (b.c. 
464). At first they almost succeeded in capturing Sparta 
itself, but after a time they were worsted and driven to bay 
on the mountain stronghold of Ithome, where their ancestors 
had held out so long in the old days (see p. 44). As in 
that war, the Spartans besieged Ithome for some time 
without success ; at last (b.c. 461) they were reduced to 
summon contingents from all their allies, among whom the 
Athenians were still numbered. Long and bitter was the 
dispute between the two parties at Athens whether the 
Spartan summons should be obeyed ; in the end the party 
of Cimon prevailed and he was despatched to Ithome at the 
head of 4000 hoplites. But the renewed attacks were as 
unsuccessful as before ; whereupon the Spartans, who seem 
to have suspected without any reason the loyalty of the 
Athenian contingent, coolly dismissed it, saying that they 
had no further need of its services. 

This deliberate affront, inflicted on their city before the 
eyes of all Greece, naturally caused a complete revulsion of 
feeling among the Athenians. The wave of indignation 
proved fatal to the ascendency of Cimon and his party ; 
and the Democratic party under Ephialtes and Pericles 
became supreme. A decree was passed renouncing the 
alliance with Sparta, and from this year (b.c. 461) the 
hostility between the two states, which proved in the end 
the ruin of Greece, may be dated. In place of the Spartan 
alliance, an alliance was formed with Argos. 

Ephialtes and Pericles now took advantage of their 
power to attack the great stronghold of the nobles, the 



138 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Council of the Areopagus, which had regained much of the 
power and authority taken away from it by Cleisthenes, in 
consequence of its patriotic action at the time of the 
Persian wars (see p. 110). It was again stripped of all 
its powers except the trial of cases of homicide, but only 
at the cost of severe party struggles ; Cinion and his party 
resisted fiercely, B.C. 460. Cimon at last was ostracised, but 
one of his extreme adherents in revenge murdered Ephialtes. 
This wicked and foolish deed utterly discredited Cimon's 
party, which never again regained power, and made Pericles 
the sole leader of the Democratic party and the leading 
statesman of Athens. His lofty character, patriotic 
statesmanship, and persuasive eloquence won for him a 
position of almost undisputed supremacy till the day of his 
death thirty years later, a fact to which it is hard to find a 
parallel in any other free state. Though holding no office 
except that of one of the ten annual generals {aTpaT-qyoi, 
see p. 76), he had absolute control over the policy of 
Athens, for the Athenians always submitted to his judg- 
ment. 

The jurisdiction taken from the Areopagus was now 
given to the law-courts into which the Heliaea (see p. 69) 
was divided ; and their work was also much increased by 
the great extension of the power of Athens. Pericles there- 
fore passed a law that every Athenian acting as a Heliast 
should receive a small payment daily for his services. Also 
that the poorer citizens might not be deprived of the oppor- 
tunity of witnessing the performances of plays in the theatre 
at the great festivals, a law was passed giving them two 
obols each (about 2^d.), the price of admission. The 
biographer, Plutarch, tells us that Pericles himself pas 
this law because his private fortune was not large enough 
to permit him to equal his rival Cimon's munificence. 
Whether that was the case or not, it was a very bad law ; 
for the money came from the war fund, and in time of 



THE REFORMS OF PERICLES 139 

war the expenditure became so burdensome that it was 
in the end abolished. 

After the reforms of Pericles and Ephialtes there were no 
further changes in the Constitution of Athens, except two 
temporary oligarchical revolutions, which will be described 
later on. The government was now a complete Democracy. 
The Democracy of Athens made mistakes, as we shall 
see ; mistakes, some of which brought terrible consequences 
to the city ; but they were mistakes which, under the 
circumstances, any kind of government might have made. 
It cannot be disputed that no state in Greece was so well 
governed ; and though there were party conflicts, and also, 
as we shall see, revolutions at Athens, they were attended 
by much less ill feeling and bloodshed than in any other 
Greek state. 

To sum up the results of the various reforms which have 
been described, the Constitution of Athens was now as 
follows : — 

(1) Nine Archons chosen annually by lot from all the 
citizens ; their duties consisted chiefly in presiding over 
the law-courts, with a few other special functions ; but 
they had now little to do with the actual government. 

(2) Ten Generals (Strategi) elected annually by the 
Ecclesia, one for each tribe;. they commanded the troops 
and fleets on service and superintended everything con- 
nected with military and naval matters. 

The Archons and Generals, as well as all the minor 
officials, were obliged, after their year of office, to give an 
account of it before a special board of examiners. 

(3) The Areopagus, the ancient council composed of 
ex-archons, now stripped of nearly all its power. 

(4) The Council (BovX??) of 500, chosen by lot, 50 
from each tribe, every citizen of thirty years of age being 
eligible. The duty of the Boule was to manage the details 
of the administration and prepare matters for discussion 



i 4 o HISTORY OF GREECE 

in the Ecclesia. It met every day and was divided into 
ten divisions called Prytanies, which were on duty a tenth 
of a year each : every day a President was chosen by 
lot from the Prytany on duty to preside over meetings 
of the Boule and of the Ecclesia. The members of the 
Boule were excused military service during their term of 
office, and received a drachma (8d.) every time they attended 
a meeting. 

(5) The Ecclesia, the assembly of all citizens of twenty 
years old and upwards : its meeting-place, called the Pnyx, 
was on a hillside near the Areopagus, but in later times 
it generally met in the Theatre ; there were four regular 
meetings under each Prytany, that is forty in the year ; 
besides which, extraordinary meetings could be called 
when necessary. It elected the generals, discussed and 
voted on questions of peace and war, and on all other 
matters of public administration submitted to it by the 
Boule. The Ecclesia did not itself make new laws, but, 
when it had voted that a change in the laws was advisable, 
referred the question to a commission elected from the 
Heliasts, before which the merits of the new and old law 
were argued just as in an ordinary trial. In order to check 
hasty legislation, any one who proposed or passed a new 
law might be accused of going against the constitution, and 
if convicted, he was punished, and the law was repealed. 
This was called the ' Graphe Paranomon ; (ypa(f)r] irapavo^v)^ 
or ' prosecution for illegal proposals. 5 In spite of this pre- 
caution, hasty legislation was always a fault of the 
Athenians, and in later times the Ecclesia itself made new 
laws without referring them to the commission. 

(6) The Helisea, or Court of Jurymen : all citizens over 
thirty years of age were eligible to serve ; the Heliasts 
were divided into ten groups, but the number that heard 
any particular case varied according to its importance. 

The number of Athenian citizens was probably about 



THE REFORMS OF PERICLES 141 

20,000, amounting with their families to about 90,000. 
Pericles, however, a few years later took the citizenship 
away from many who were not of true Athenian descent, 
and reduced the number of citizens to 14,000. The Metics 
(fieroiKoi), foreigners residing at Athens, chiefly for pur- 
poses of trade, seem to have amounted with their families 
to between forty and fifty thousand. In addition, there 
were the slaves, chiefly Asiatics, who were the labourers 
and household servants ; they with their families amounted 
to the large number of 400,000. Thus the whole popula- 
tion of Attica, men, women, and children, was over 500,000, 
of whom probably about 100,000 lived in Athens itself. 

The army (at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war) 
consisted of 1200 cavalry and 29,000 hoplites : of these 
13,000 were the active army for foreign service ; and 16,000 
the reserve for home defence, consisting of citizens above 
and below the military age, and metics. Besides there were 
light troops consisting of the Thetes (see p. 68), and hired 
mercenaries. The fleet consisted of about 400 triremes 
(see p. 97) : the marines were hoplites, the sailors and 
rowers Thetes and mercenaries. Slaves were, however, on 
emergencies, employed both in the fleet and army. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE LAND EMPIRE OF ATHENS 

Dates, b. c. 

Expedition to Egypt, 460 

War against Corinth and iEgina. Athenian victories, 459 

Building of the Long Walls, 458-6 

Spartans defeat Athenians at Tanagra, . . . 457 

Athenian victory at (Enophyta : conquest of Boeotia, 456 
Conquest of iEgina. Destruction of armament in 

Egypt, 455 

Five years' truce with Sparta, .... 450 

Death of Cimon, 449 

Chief Names. — Pericles, Cimon, Myronides. 

After the ostracism of Cimon and the overthrow of his 
policy of friendship with Sparta, Athens, under the guidance 
of Pericles, started on a career of self-aggrandizement and 
defiance of Sparta, and displayed a most astounding activity 
in every direction ; for a time it seemed as if nothing could 
stop her progress, and it even appeared possible that she 
might bring all Greece under her sway. But the task she 
had set~ herself was beyond her strength, and, as we shall 
see, she was soon obliged to content herself with more 
moderate aims. 

In the East the fleet of the Confederacy of Delos had 
already been sent to Egypt to aid the king, Inaros, who 
had rebelled against the Persians (b.c. 460) ; it sailed up 
the Nile and besieged the Persian garrison in the citadel of 
Memphis, called the White Fort, not far from the modern 

142 



THE LAND EMPIRE OF ATHENS 143 

Cairo ; but here the expedition met with a stubborn resist- 
ance, and its fate will be narrated later. 

In Greece an alliance was formed with the Dorian state 
of Megara, on the Isthmus of Corinth, which was induced 
to join Athens by the ill treatment she suffered from her 
more powerful neighbour Corinth. Megara had a port, 
Nissea, on the Saronic Gulf, only a mile distant (see map 
p. 250), in which the Athenians placed a permanent garri- 
son ; they then built two long walls from it to Megara, 
so that having the command of the sea, they might 
be able to send help through Nisaea to Megara, and so 
protect it against the Corinthians ; and as Megara com- 
manded the passes of Mount Gerania, they hoped to be 
able to prevent a Peloponnesian army from invading Athens 
across the Isthmus. This action of Athens caused great 
alarm and indignation in the Peloponnese. Sparta was still 
occupied with the Helot revolt, but Corinth declared war, 
and was joined by Athens's old enemy ^gina. 

After some preliminary fighting on sea and land, a 
decisive sea fight took place : the naval tactics which the 
Athenians had learnt in their long campaigns against the 
Persians proved so effective that the Corinthians and 
iEginetans were totally defeated, with a loss of seventy 
ships, B.C. 459, and from this time forward the Athenian 
fleet was regarded in Greece as invincible. 

The Athenians now landed a large force in iEgina, and 
began to besiege the city ; to raise the siege of iEgina the 
Corinthians attacked Megara, thinking that with so many 
troops in Egypt the Athenians would have no force at 
home to oppose them, and therefore would have to recall 
the besieging army. But a force of ' old men and boys ' 
(i.e. the citizens above and below the military age) was sent 
out under a general named Myronides and repelled the 
invaders. The Corinthians on returning home were ridiculed 
by their fellow- citizens for being beaten by such a force, 



144 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



and marched out again to retrieve their ill luck ; but this 
time they were totally defeated, and one division was 
caught in a walled enclosure and destroyed by the Athenian 
light troops. 

But in spite of such temporary successes the position of 
Athens was obviously a dangerous one. Sooner or later 
she would have to face the full force of the Spartan con- 
federacy. Her fortifications might save her from assault, 
but she was liable to be surrounded and cut off from her 
harbours, and so starved into surrender. The example of 
Megara suggested a remedy ; it was resolved to join Athens 
to her ports by 
similar long walls, 
one to the Peiraeus 
and the other to 
Phalerum. As Athens 
was four and a half 




THE LONG WALLS OF ATHENS 



miles from the sea, the work was a most stupendous one ; 
but, once accomplished, it would not only assure the safety 
of the city as long as the fleet held the command of the 
sea and could import food, but also afford a large space 
between the walls in which the country people could take 
refuge from hostile inroads. So the work was taken in 
hand, and carried out in two years (b.c. 458-6), and the 
walls were so strong that no enemy ever dared to attack 



THE LAND EMPIRE OF ATHENS 145 

them. A second wall was afterwards built to the Peirseus ; 
since the two walls close together could be defended by one 
force, while the walls far apart would require two forces, 
and the Peirseus was far more important than Phalerum. 

The Spartans, disappointed at the ill success of the 
Corinthians, felt that it was absolutely necessary for them 
to take some step to check the alarming growth of the 
Athenian power, although they were still occupied in the 
siege of Ithome. With this object they determined to 
restore Athens's old enemy, Thebes, to its former position of 
head of Bceotia. Little more than twenty years had passed 
since Thebes had been deprived of that headship by Sparta 
in accordance with the general voice of Greece, as a punish- 
ment for its ' Medism ' ; but now the times were changed, 
the crimes of Thebes were permitted to be forgotten, in 
order that she might be made a thorn in the side of Athens. 
It happened at that time that there was war between the 
Boeotians and their neighbours the Phocians ; and the 
Phocians had invaded the little country of Doris, the 
original home of the Spartans (see p. 33). So a force of 
12,000 Peloponnesians was sent into Northern Greece on 
the pretext of driving the Phocians out of Doris (b.c. 457). 
This was accomplished without any difficulty, and then the 
expedition encamped in Bceotia, and carried out its real 
object ; the various cities of Bceotia were compelled to 
submit to the headship of Thebes, the fortifications of 
Thebes were Tstrengthened, and,1 it seems, oligarchical 
governments friendly to Sparta set up throughout the 
country. These proceedings caused great alarm at Athens, 
especially as it was rumoured that some of the nobles were 
in secret correspondence with the Spartan army, with the 
object of overthrowing the Democracy and stopping the 
building of the Long Walls. So, having obtained some 
reinforcements from Argos, and some Thessalian cavalry, the 
Athenians marched out and crossed the Boeotian frontier. 

K 



146 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



The Spartans were obliged to fight in order to secure their 
return inarch home over the Isthmus, and the battle took 
place at Tanagra. The ostracised Ciiiion, eager to disprove 
the, charge of treachery made against his party, appeared on 
the field of battle, and requested leave to fight in the ranks 
of his tribe ; and when this request was refused, his friends 
brought his armour into the battle, and fought so bravely 
that one hundred of them fell around it. Pericles also 
fought in the ranks of his tribe, and displayed conspicuous 




BCEOTIA AND ITS NEIGHBOURS 

bravery. The battle was hardly contested ; but the desertion 
of the Thessalians gave the victory to the Spartans ; so 
indecisive, however, was their success, without any attack 
on Athens or the still unfinished Long Walls, that they made 
their way home over the Isthmus, ravaging the lands of 
Megara as they passed. The spirit of the Athenians was 
raised rather than depressed by the battle of Tanagra ; its 
first result was to heal the party strife ; the ostracism of 
Cimon was revoked by a motion generously made by his 



THE LAND EMPIRE OF ATHENS 147 

rival Pericles. It also put an end to any question of 
friendship with the Spartans, and justified Pericles's distrust 
of them. Sparta had shown her real policy by restoring 
the Thebans to their headship of Bceotia, and all Athenians 
saw now that Athens had henceforward only her own 
strength to depend on, and they determined to use that 
strength to the utmost. The first step must be the over- 
throw of this new Theban power. 

Early therefore the next year (b.c. 456), they suddenly 
invaded Bceotia under Myronides, and totally defeated the 
Thebans in a hard battle near the village of (Enophyta 
(b.c. 456). The work of the Spartans was undone, the 
Boeotian nobles were driven into exile, and democratic 
governments in alliance with Athens were set up. Thus 
Athens became more powerful than ever ; and the Locrians 
and Phocians also joined her alliance. Sparta looked idly 
on at the ruin of her plans ; the result of Tanagra did not 
seem to encourage her to attempt another expedition into 
Boeotia with the Athenians, now thoroughly hostile, holding 
the Isthmus at Megara. 

The next year (b.c. 455), iEgina was starved into sub- 
mission, surrendering its fleet and becoming a subject ally 
of Athens, and thenceforth disappears from Grecian history 
as an independent state. The Athenian fleet, which had 
been engaged in the blockade of iEgina, was sent round the 
Peloponnese under Tolmides, burning and ravaging the 
coasts. The same year saw the surrender of Ithome, after 
a ten years' siege ; many of the Messenians, full of bitter 
feelings against Sparta, were planted by Tolmides in Nau- 
pactus, an iEtolian port on the North Coast of the entrance 
of the Corinthian Gulf, which, from its position, became a 
most important naval station of Athens. 

But in Egypt a disaster befell Athens, which would have 
stayed the energies of most states. It has been already 
described how a force was sent to that country b.c. 460 ' 



148 HISTORY OF GREECE 

(see p. 142), and how its progress was stopped before the 
c White Fort. J Artaxerxes then sent large forces to Egypt ; 
and Inaros and the Athenians were at length defeated, and 
driven on an island in the Nile ; here they maintained 
themselves for eighteen months, till the Persians diverted 
the water of that branch of the Nile, and stormed the 
island ; nearly all the Athenians perished ; Inaros was 
taken and crucified. To make matters worse, a fresh 
reinforcement of fifty Athenian triremes arriving soon after, 
ignorant of what had happened, was also attacked and 
destroyed. Thus Egypt again fell into the hands of the 
Persians ; and this was their only success during their 
wars against Greece. 

In spite of this blow the Athenians continued their efforts 
to extend their power in Greece. Fresh expeditions were 
undertaken against the coasts of the Peloponnese, and an 
attempt was made to gain possession of Thessaly by sending 
a force to support the exiled prince of one of the states ; 
but the expedition was unsuccessful. Sparta still made no 
move ; and in B.C. 450, Cimon, who was probably anxious 
to retrieve the disaster in Egypt, succeeded in bringing 
about a truce for five years. The next year he was sent 
with a fleet of 200 triremes against Cyprus ; but, while 
besieging the town of Citium (the modern Larnaca), he was 
struck down by disease and died (b.c. 449). 

His successor won two victories over the Persian fleet 
and army, and then returned home. These were the con- 
cluding battles of the Persian war, which had thus lasted 
just fifty years from the beginning of the Ionic revolt (500- 
449). According to one account, an Athenian statesman 
named Callias went to Susa, and arranged a peace (known 
in history as the peace of Callias) with the Great King, by 
which the Persians agreed to give up all claim to the 
islands of the iEgean and Greek coast cities, and to send no 
ships of war into the iEgean ; in return for which Athens 



THE LAND EMPIRE OF A THENS 149 

abandoned Egypt and Cyprus to Persia. Some historians, 
however, say that no such peace was ever really made, 
and that the account of it was invented by the Greeks 
of a later age ; however that may be, there is no doubt 
that the war ceased from this time, that Athens made 
no more attempts on Egypt and Cyprus, while Persia, as 
long as the power of Athens was secure, made no attempt 
to re-establish her power on the iEgean ; it was not till 
the Athenian Empire was in its death-throes that the 
Persians reappear again in the history of Greece, and then 
they will be found welcomed as allies by Sparta and her 
friends. 



CHAPTEE XVIII 

ATHENS LOSES HER LAND EMPIRE : THIRTY YEARS' PEACE 

Dates, b. c. 

Battle of Coronea, 447 

Revolt of Eubcea, Megara deserts Athens, . . 446 

Thirty years' Peace, 445 

Ostracism of Thucydides, 443 

Kevolt of Samos, . . . . . . . 410 

Foundation of Amphipolis, 437 

Chief Names. — Pericles, Tolmides, Pausanias, Thucydides 
(son of Milesias). 

Athens was now at the height of her power ; possessing 
an overwhelming fleet and connected with her ports by the 
famous Long Walls, she was herself absolutely secure ; for 
her fortifications were impregnable owing to the ignorance 
of the Greeks in the art of besieging, and she could always 
bring in supplies by sea. She was mistress of the 
Hellespont and the iEgean, where the Confederacy of 
Delos had, as has been seen, gradually been converted into 
an Athenian Empire. In Greece itself she possessed the 
large island of Eubcea, and by her alliances was supreme 
from the Isthmus of Corinth to the Pass of Thermopylae, 
while in the Peloponnese she was in alliance with the great 
state of Argos. It seemed at the time almost possible 
that the whole of Greece might be united under her 
leadership ; and then how different its history would have 
been. 

150 



ATHENS LOSES HER LAND EMPLRE 151 

But splendid as was her position, it contained two 
serious points of weakness. In the first place she had 
incurred the undying hatred of Sparta and of the Boeotian 
nobles, now in exile ; slow as Sparta was to move, she had 
a terrible persistence when once she had really made up her 
mind. Secondly, Athens was offending against the Greek 
love of independence, which has been so often mentioned. 
Though her empire conferred great benefits on her subjects 
by freeing them and protecting them from the Persians, 
and her rule was probably on the whole just and beneficent, 
Athens made no effort to conceal the fact that her object in 
maintaining it was now the selfish one of self-aggrandize- 
ment ; she did not try to conciliate her subjects, and when 
they revolted crushed them according to the Greek custom 
with relentless ferocity. Thus they chafed at their bonds 
and were ready to revolt if an opportunity came ; Athens 
was beginning to be regarded as a tyrant state, and when 
her enemies attacked her they found it easy to say that 
they were fighting to free the Greeks from slavery to 
Athens. 

It was not long before the storm burst, and it burst in 
Boeotia. The democratic governments set up there by 
Athens seem to have been very badj and to have soon 
disgusted the inhabitants ; and in B.C. 447 the exiled 
nobles, feeling the time ripe for a revolution, suddenly 
entered the country aided by anti- Athenian exiles from 
Locris, Phocis, and Eubcea, and seized the towns of Orcho- 
menus and Chseronea. The Athenians at first deemed the 
outbreak as of trivial importance ; instead of waiting- 
till they had got together a sufficient force they hurriedly 
despatched Tolmides with 1000 men, many of them 
volunteers of high rank ; he recovered Chseronea but was 
surprised on his return march near the town of Coronea ; 
Tolmides himself fell and the whole of his force were either 
killed or captured. 



152 HISTORY OF GREECE 

This defeat caused the downfall of the land empire of 
Athens. There was nothing which a Greek state felt so 
keenly as the capture of any of its citizens by the enemy, 
especially if they were of high rank. Such, therefore, was 
the anxiety of the Athenians to recover these prisoners that 
they agreed to absolutely abandon Bceotia ; the democratic 
governments were overthrown throughout the country, and 
Thebes became again the head of the Boeotian League, with 
feelings naturally more hostile to Athens than ever. 
Similar results followed in Locris and Phocis, where the 
Athenian alliance had been supported by the democratic 
governments, and those districts were also lost to Athens. 

But this was not all. First Eubcea revolted ; and Peri- 
cles with a large force, including 5000 hoplites, was 
sent across to reduce the island. Then Megara (for 
some unknown reason) abandoned the Athenian alliance ; 
suddenly without any warning she opened her gates to 
the Corinthians, many of the Athenian garrison were 
slain, the rest fled to Nisaea. The Isthmus was now 
open to an invading army, and the five years 5 truce had 
expired ; accordingly, the whole force of the Spartan 
confederacy under the young king Pleistoanax, son of 
Pausanias, inarched into Attica burning and ravaging. But 
they did not venture to advance further than the plain of 
Eleusis (see map, p. 112) and then retired. It is said that 
Pericles, who had been recalled from Euboea, bribed the 
young king and his adviser ; the Spartans seemed to have 
thought so, for they banished them both. After the retire- 
ment of the Spartans, Pericles set off again with his forces 
to Euboea which soon submitted. The Athenians inflicted 
no severe punishment on the country except that some land 
was taken away and given to Athenian settlers. 

Both sides were now ready for peace. The Peloponnesians 
were content with the success they had gained in destroy- 
ing the land empire of Athens, and diol not care to risk 



ATHENS LOSES HER LAND EMPIRE 153 

what they had won by pressing her still further ; while 
the Athenians felt that the recovery of their land empire 
was beyond their strength, and that they must now devote 
all their resources to strengthening and maintaining their 
naval empire. So a peace for thirty years was concluded 
(b.c. 445), and Athens surrendered Nisaea and a few places 
she had taken on the coast of the Peloponnese. But a few 
years afterwards she revenged herself on Megara by closing 
her own harbours and those of the Confederacy of Delos to 
her, which nearly ruined her trade. The land empire of 
Athens had lasted about nine years from B.C. 456 (the 
battle of (Enophyta) to b.c. 447 (the battle of Coronea). 

Thus passed away the hope of an Athenian Empire, and 
with it all hope of Greek unity. But the struggle was 
not over yet ; the Thirty Years' Peace was only a truce, 
the hatred of the Peloponnesians against Athens still 
remained and would not be appeased till her power was 
utterly broken. Sooner or later the struggle would have 
to be fought out ; it needed only a spark to rekindle it. 

We must now turn back to the home affairs of Athens ; 
after the death of Cimon the nobles found a new leader 
in Thucydides, son of Milesias ; this Thucydides must 
not be confused with the famous historian of the same 
name who will come into the history later. Though not a 
general like Cimon he was an able politician, and he so 
organised his party that they were able to present a strong 
front against Pericles, though not powerful enough to 
overthrow him. The chief subject of dispute between 
Pericles and Thucydides was no longer the relations of Athens 
and Sparta, which had been settled once for all, but the em- 
ployment of the contributions of the Confederacy of Delos : 
Thucydides held that the money should only be used for 
the purpose for which it was levied, that is, the defence of 
Athens and the Confederacy ; but Pericles argued that 
Athens was providing sufficiently for the defence of the 



154 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Confederacy and w\?s entitled to make what use she liked 
of what remained over. Accordingly, he used some of the 
money for the payments to the Heliasts, which have 
been mentioned ; but a very large part he devoted to 
adorning Athens with the splendid temples and other 
buildings which made her the wonder of Greece, and the 
ruins of which to this day excite the admiration of the 
world. The rest of the money was laid by as a reserve 
fund for times of danger, which at one time amounted to 
9000 talents (about <£2,000,000) ; but, owing to the amount 
expended by Pericles on building, it only amounted to 
6000 talents at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war. 
At last, B.C. 443, party feeling ran so high that an ostracism 
was demanded and Thucydides was banished ; hence- 
forward Pericles held undisputed sway at Athens, and we 
hear nothing more of the moderate party till after his death. 
To extend the influence of Athens after the check 
inflicted on her on the mainland in the late war, and 
perhaps also to rid the city of his political opponents, 
Pericles turned his attention to colonisation. He planted 
Athenian settlers in many of the islands. He sent out 
some Athenian and Ionian settlers to Magna Graecia to 
refound the city of Sybaris, which had been destroyed in 
a war with its neighbour Croton seventy years before 
(see p. 52). The scattered remnants of the old inhabi- 
tants joined the new colonists, and a new city was founded 
near the site of the old one ; disputes arose between 
the old and new citizens, in which the latter were 
victorious, and changed the name of the city to Thurii. 
In the year B.C. 437 another attempt was made to 
colonise Nine Eoads on the River Strymon in Thrace 
(see p. 133) ; this time the attempt was successful, and a 
town was founded to which the name Amphipolis was 
given. Amphipolis was a most important post ; for lyin.u 
in a bend of the Strymon between Lake Cercine and the 



ATHENS LOSES HER LAND EMPIRE 155 

sea it commanded the coast road from Macedonia to 
Thrace, which crossed the river here by a bridge, and also 
the valuable gold mine of Mount Pangaeus. But very few of 
the colonists of Amphipolis were Athenians, so we shall see 
that in after time Athens was unable to retain possession of 
it. We shall find Amphipolis a source of great trouble and 
disappointment to Athens. 

Three years before the founding of Amphipolis (b.c. 440) 
occurred another revolt in the Confederacy of Delos. Samos, 
one of the three islands still remaining independent, had a 
quarrel with Miletus about some territory. The Milesians 
sent an embassy to Athens which was supported in its 
complaint by emissaries from the democrats of Samos ; for 
the government of Samos was at this time aristocratic, a 
striking proof of the liberality of Athens in its treatment of 
its subject allies. The Athenians now sent a fleet to Samos 
and overthrew the aristocrats, driving their leaders into 
exile and setting up a democratic government. But in a 
short time -the aristocratic exiles collected forces from the 
neighbourhood with the assistance of the Persian satrap of 
Sardis, surprised the small Athenian garrison left in Samos, 
and seized the govermnent again. 

Thereupon the Athenians sent out Pericles with a fleet 
of sixty triremes, all they had ready, to reduce the island. 
Pericles defeated the Samian fleet consisting of seventy 
ships, fifty of them triremes ; he then sailed off with the 
greater part of his fleet in search of a Phoenician fleet which 
was expected to be coming to the aid of Samos but never 
came. During his absence the Samians defeated the 
squadron left behind, and having for a time command of 
the sea sent an embassy to Sparta to implore aid against 
the tyranny . of Athens. The Spartans and most of their 
allies thought this a good opportunity to attack their 
dreaded rival, but the Corinthians who had, as we have seen 
and shall see again, trouble with their own colony, Corcyra, 



156 HISTORY OF GREECE 

insisted on the principle that every state should be left to 
deal as it liked with its own subject allies. So help was 
refused to the Saniians. Meanwhile Pericles had returned 
from his cruise, reinforcements kept arriving from Athens as 
they were fitted out, and also from Chios and Lesbos, till 
the blockading force numbered nearly 200 ships, and the 
Saniians, in spite of a brave resistance, were compelled to 
surrender after a nine months' siege ; they were, according 
to the usual practice of Athens, compelled to destroy their 
walls and give up their ships, and were reduced to the 
position of tribute-paying subjects ; but the oligarchical 
government does not seem to have been overthown. 

Dates. 

PERSIAN WARS AND ATHENIAN SUPREMACY. B.C. 

Ionic Revolt, 500 

Battle of Lade, 496 

First Persian invasion of Greece (attempted), . 492 

Second Invasion : Battle of Marathon, . . . 490 

Third Invasion : Battle of Thermopylae and Salamis, 480 

„ Battles of Plataea and Mycale, . 479 

Capture of Byzantium. Treason of Pausanias, . 478 

Foundation of the Confederacy of Delos, . . 477 

Battle of the Eurymedon, Revolt of Naxos, . . 466 

Revolt of the Helots, 464 

Ephialtes and Pericles overthrow the Areopagus. 

Athenian Expedition to Egypt, .... 460 

Athens at war with Corinth and JEgina, . . 459 

Building of the Long Walls of Athens, , . . 458 

Athens at war with Sparta. Battle of Tanagra, . 457 
Battle of (Enophyta : conquest of Bceotia by Athens, 456 

Destruction of Athenian armament in Egypt, . 455 

Five Years' Truce between Athens and Sparta, . 450 

Battle of Coronea. The Athenians lose Boeotia, . 447 

Thirty Years' Peace between Athens and Sparta, 445 

Revolt of Samos, 440 

Foundation of Amphipolis, ..... 437 



ATHENS LOSES HER LAND EMPIRE 157 

CONTEMPORARY EVENTS. 

The West. The East. 

Rome. Secession to the Darius, King of Persia, 522-485 

Sacred Mount, . . 494 Xerxes, „ 485-465 

Carthaginian Invasion of Artaxerxes, . . 464-423 

Sicily. Battle of Himera, 480 
Decemvirs at Rome, . 450 



CHAPTER XIX 



OUTBREAK OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 1 
DEATH OF PERICLES 



Dates, 
Quarrel between Corinth and Corcyra, 
Alliance between Corcyra and Athens, 
Eevolt of Potidaea from Athens . 
Outbreak of Peloponnesian War, . 
Plague at Athens : surrender of Potidaea, 
Death of Pericles, 



B.C. 

436 
433 
432 
431 
430 
429 



Chief Names. — Pericles, Perdiccas, Archidamus, Brasidas. 

It was not probable that the thirty years' truce would be 
permitted to run its full course. The jealousy of Sparta 
and the unfriendliness of Thebes were still smouldering : a 
single spark was sufficient to set them again in a blaze, 
and to kindle the flames of a war that raged with but slight 
intermission for twenty -eight years throughout Greece and 
ended in the utter overthrow of Athens. This war, known 
as the Peloponnesian War, was the greatest of all the 
fraticidal struggles in which the Greeks engaged ; almost 
every state in Greece was at one time or another drawn 
into it. 

To find the cause of the war we must leave the Eastern 
Coast of Greece and the iEgean Sea, where most of the 
interest of our history has hitherto lain, and turn to the 
Western Coast of Northern Greece ; there lay the large 
island of Corcyra (KepKvpa was its Greek name) the colony 
15S . 



OUTBREAK OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 159 



of Corinth (see p. 53), famous for its powerful navy and 

its quarrels with its mother country. On the mainland was 

Epidamnus, a colony which, as 

has been mentioned, Corcyra had 

founded in conjunction with 

Corinth. 

At this time Epidamnus was 
torn by civil strife ; and the 
people, being besieged by the 
oligarchs in alliance with the 
neighbouring barbarians, ap- 
pealed for help to Corcyra ; the 
Corcyrseans rejected their appeal, 
whereupon they turned to the 
mother city, Corinth. The Cor- 
inthians were delighted with the 
opportunity of humbling Corcyra, 
and sent a small expedition to 
the help of Epidamnus ; but 
the Corey rseans indignant at 
this interference united with the 
oligarchs and natives in besieging the relieving force in 
Epidamnus ; the Corinthians then prepared a large fleet of 
seventy- five triremes including contingents from their allies. 
The Corcyraeans tried . to stop the despatch of the fleet by 
negotiations, but being unsuccessful they put to sea with 
eighty ships, and defeated it ; the same day Epidamnus sur- 
rendered (b.c. 435). 

The triumph of Corcyra was a bitter humiliation to the 
Corinthians, and revenge was now their only thought ; by 
the end of the summer they had sufficient ships to keep the 
victorious fleet in check, and they spent the whole of the 
next year in building and fitting out an armament that 
would be irresistible. The Corcyraeans, now thoroughly 
alarmed, applied to Athens for help ; a meeting of the 



—XnEpidamnus 


i 




=$[j^ — ^v M 


\ 


HIloApolloiiiav 1 *^ [ 


»fcs \y<> 


w 


|[C O R C Y R Ag^ fe^L 


% 


^= E5E ^^£m 


J)raciaV <tfi 


jWfcjj 


ffcUClR- 

gflJQNMIA. 1 



CORCYRA 



160 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Ecclesia was held at which envoys from both sides 
spoke. 

The Corinthians reminded the Athenians that a few years 
before they had prevented Sparta from helping Samos 
in its revolt against Athens, because they held that every 
state should be free to treat its subject allies as it liked. 
The Corcyrseans pointed out that war between Athens and 
the Spartan Confederacy must come sooner or later, and 
that their fleet would be a great increase of strength to 
Athens. The Corinthians were undoubtedly in the right, 
but the Athenians by the advice of Pericles finally decided 
to make an alliance with Corcyra for defence only, not for 
offence (b.c. 433), and despatched a small squadron of ten 
ships with instructions to fight only to save the Corcyrasans 
from destruction. 

At length the Corinthian fleet put to sea 150 strong ; the 
Corcyrasans met them with 110 ships, and after a confused and 
desperate engagement the Corinthians were victorious, and 
the Athenians were obliged to interfere to save the flying 
Corcyrseans ; later in the day the Corinthians were about to 
renew the attack, but they desisted owing to the sudden 
appearance of twenty more Athenian ships (which they 
wrongly imagined to be the advanced guard of a large fleet), 
and next day, not venturing to fight against the more 
experienced Athenian sailors, they sailed away, home 
(b.c. 432). 

The Corinthians were naturally furious at this action of 
the Athenians, which seemed to them such gross ingratitude 
after their conduct at the time of the revolt of Samos. 
Henceforward they became the bitterest enemies of Athens, 
and sought for every opportunity of injuring her. The 
opportunity soon came. The Athenians were at this time 
engaged in war with Perdiccas, king of Macedonia ; and 
he began to stir up revolt among the subject towns of 
Athens on the Chalcidian peninsula. The most important of 



OUTBREAK OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 161 

these was Potidsea (see map, p. 93), a town in an extremely 
strong position on a narrow neck of land, and originally a 
colony of Corinth ; so the Corinthians sent a force of 2000 
men to its help, but the Athenian force in Thrace defeated 
the Corinthians and Potidaeans and proceeded to blockade 
the city. Disappointed in this enterprise the Corinthians 
appealed to Sparta ; after a long debate in their council, in 
which Archidamus one of the kings spoke strongly for 
peace, the Spartans decided on war, and a meeting of the 
allies was called which ratified the decision. 

Before actually declaring war the Spartans made an 
attempt to bring about the downfall of Pericles, who at 
this time chanced to be somewhat unpopular at Athens. 
The mother of Pericles was an Alcniaeonid, the family 
accursed nearly two hundred years before for the murder 
of Cylon (see p. 65) ; so the Spartans ordered the 
Athenians to rid themselves of the curse by banishing 
him, just as they had ordered them to banish Cleisthenes 
eighty years before (see p. 77). The only reply made 
by Athens was that Sparta should banish those accursed 
for the pollution of the temple of Athene by the death of 
Pausanias (see p. 130), and of the temple of Poseidon by 
the murder of the Helots (see p. 137). Then the Spartans 
sent an embassy with three demands : that Athens should 
restore their independence to Potidsea and iEgina, and 
rescind the decrees against Megara (see p. 153). Finally 
came another embassy with the Spartan ultimatum, that 
Athens must restore independence to the Greeks ; this was 
practically a declaration of war, as Athens could not accept 
such terms, which meant the dissolution of the Confederacy 
of Delos. There was, however, a debate in the Ecclesia, 
and by the advice of Pericles the demand of Sparta was 
rejected. 

War was now inevitable, the war which was to decide 
whether Athens or Sparta should be the head of Greece. 

L 



1 62 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Most of the States of Greece were ranged on the one side 
or the other. Sparta was supported by Corinth and all the 
Peloponnesians except Argos and the Achaeans, and north 
of the Isthmus by Megara, Thebes, the Phocians, Locrians, 
and Anibracia, a Corinthian colony in the south of Epirus. 
On the side of Athens was Corcyra and the Confederacy of 
Delos in which Chios and Lesbos were still free ; but the 
Confederacy was hardly a source of strength to Athens, being 
held together by fear rather than by love. On the mainland 
the allies of Athens were the Thessalians and the Acar- 
nanians, whom Athens had lately assisted against their 
neighbours, the Ambracians ; and the town of Naupactus, 
with its garrison of Messenians, gave her a convenient port 
for her squadron which guarded the entrance of the Gulf of 
Corinth. 

Sparta had an overwhelming land force against which it 
was hopeless for Athens to contend ; and Corinth and a 
few other states furnished ships. But Athens possessed a 
fleet not only greater in numbers, but also, as has been 
mentioned, vastly superior in naval tactics owing to the 
experience her sailors had won during the long war against 
Persia. Athens itself, thanks to Themistocles's fortifications, 
was impregnable ; and, being united to the sea by the ' Long- 
Walls,' could always be supplied with food as long as her 
fleet was unconquered. Pericles's plan therefore was (1) to 
attempt no resistance on land outside the city walls, and 
not to waste the resources of the state on distant enter- 
prises, but (2) to keep a firm hold on the sea and the 
empire which Athens now possessed, and (3) to attack the 
enemy's coasts at every point with the fleet, and, if possible, 
to seize some post on the Peloponnese and so raise a revolt 
among the Helots. The plan of the Spartans was to invade 
and ravage Attica with their army, and they thought that 
two or three years of this treatment would force the 
Athenians to submission. The struggle therefore would be 



OUTBREAK OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 163 

one of endurance ; but the prospect of seeing their home- 
steads and farms ravaged and burnt year after year was a 
terrible one to the Athenians, they began the war with 
great despondency, and it needed all Pericles's cheering 
eloquence to keep them to their purpose. 

The war had not yet been formally declared when, in the 
spring of B.C. 431, the Thebans made a treacherous attempt 
to surprise Platsea, which still remained faithful to Athens. 
On a rainy night during a festival a force of 300 Theban 
hoplites were admitted into the town by the leaders of the 
oligarchical faction and seized the market-place ; there they 
waited expecting to be joined at daybreak by the main 
body from Thebes, and hoping that surprise would over- 
awe the Plataeans into submission. But the Plataeans, after 
they had recovered from their first alarm, perceiving the 
small numbers of the Thebans, determined on resistance: 
by breaking passages through the walls of their houses, they 
communicated together and collected their forces without 
alarming the enemy, and at daybreak suddenly attacked 
them. The reinforcements, delayed by the river Asopus 
which was swollen by the rain, were not in sight ; and, after 
a steady resistance for some time, the Thebans were driven 
in flight from the market-place ; utterly lost amid the 
narrow crooked streets, and assailed with missiles from the 
houses, the survivors at length surrendered unconditionally, 
except a few who succeeded in escaping through the gate. 
Then the reinforcements arrived, and, hearing of the disaster, 
seized all the Plataeans they could find outside the walls ; 
being upbraided by the herald of the Plataeans for having 
thus flagrantly broken the peace, they agreed to give up 
the captives and retire on the understanding, according to 
the Theban account, that the Plataeans also should release 
their prisoners. But as soon as the Thebans had retired 
the Plataeans killed all the prisoners to the number of 180, 
for according to their account they had made no such 



1 64 HISTORY OF GREECE 

promise. When the Athenians heard of the slaughter of 
the prisoners they were much annoyed, for, as we have 
seen, there was nothing that made a Greek state so anxious 
for peace as the fact that some of its citizens were in the 
hands of the enemy. They could not hope to protect 
Platsea, but they withdrew all the population incapable of 
fighting to Athens and provisioned the town for a long siege. 
A few weeks afterwards the Spartan king Archidamus 
invaded Attica with the whole force of the Pelopon- 
nesian Confederacy. Before he crossed the frontier he 
made one more effort in the cause of peace by sending a 
herald to Athens, but the Athenians would not receive him, 
and he returned to his camp exclaiming, \ This day will be 
the beginning of great woes to Greece. 5 Archidamus now 
set his army in motion : the Peloponnesian war had begun. 
After wasting several days in an unsuccessful attempt to 
storm the frontier fort of CEnoe, Archidamus advanced into 
Attica and began his work of destruction. It was now 
June and the corn was ripe in the fields ; and the 
Peloponnesians felt sure that the Athenians would come 
out and fight in defence of their lands. But they were 
mistaken ; the farms and country towns were deserted, the 
inhabitants were encamped in the wide space between the 
long walls, having taken everything portable with them and 
sent their cattle to Eubcea. It was however with ill- 
suppressed fury that they witnessed the destruction of 
their homes and crops, and when the devastating host 
reached Acharnae, a flourishing country-town seven miles 
from Athens, and Acharnre itself was seen to be in flames, 
the excitement became intense, especially among the 
Acharnian hoplites, and it was all Pericles could do to keep 
them within the walls. Pericles now delivered his counter- 
stroke : a fleet of a hundred ships was sent out, which, 
joined by fifty Corey ra?an ships, harried the coasts of the 
Peloponnese and the Corinthian colonies up the western coast 



OUTBREAK OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 165 

of Epirus ; they attacked Methone, an ill- defended town in 
the south of Messenia, and would have taken it but for the 
prompt action of a Spartan named Brasidas, of whom more 
will be heard later. 

Meanwhile the Peloponnesian army having exhausted its 
provisions returned home and was disbanded ; its stay in 
Attica had lasted about six weeks. The Athenians now 
marched out and in their turn mercilessly ravaged the 
territory of Megara, an operation which they repeated 
every year, reducing Megara to the greatest distress, which 
the Spartans made no effort to relieve. They also expelled 
the inhabitants of iEglna, which was inconveniently near the 
Peirseus. Another measure adopted by the Athenians this 
year shows their determination to resist to the last. They 
laid aside a fund of a thousand talents (^£200,000) and a 
fleet of a hundred of the best triremes, and passed a decree 
making it a capital offence to propose to use them except 
in the case of extreme danger. 

In the second year of the war (b.c. 430) the usual in- 
vasion of the Peloponnesian army under Archidamus took 
place, followed by the harrying cruise of the Athenian fleet 
round the Peloponnese. But the year was specially marked 
by the outbreak of a terrible Plague at Athens, caused, or at 
least aggravated, by the over- crowded state of the city filled 
with refugees from the country ; for two years the scourge 
raged and then after an interval broke out again for a year ; 
in all it swept away at least one-fifth of the entire population. 
The appalling misery broke for a time the spirit of the 
Athenians, and they vented their rage on Pericles as the 
author of all their calamities ; he was accused by his 
political opponents for mismanagement and condemned to 
pay a fine ; but afterwards the people relented and re-elected 
him general. At the same time an unsuccessful attempt 
was made to obtain terms of peace from Sparta. Pericles 
himself lost his two sons and many relations by the plague : 



166 HISTORY OF GREECE 

a sad gloom was surrounding the closing days of this great 
man. 

Determined to leave no stone unturned to compass the 
overthrow of Athens, the Spartans despatched some envoys 
to obtain the aid of the king of Persia. The envoys were 
forced to travel overland, the risk of being caught by the 
Athenian ships being too great ; but while traversing 
Thrace they fell into the power of a Thracian prince, 
Sitalces, who, having lately become an ally of Athens, 
handed them over to her, and they were all put to 
death. This, the Athenians said, was in retaliation for 
the Spartan practice of putting to death the crews of all 
Athenian merchant ships captured by their privateers. 
Late in the year Potidaea surrendered after a close 
blockade of two years : the Athenian generals granted sur- 
prisingly f avourable terms, considering length and expense 
of the siege ; the inhabitants were allowed to depart with 
a small sum of money each, and one thousand Athenian 
colonists were sent to take their place. 

The third year of the war (b.c. 429) was memorable for 
the death of Pericles ; he died of weakness following an 
attack of the plague, from which he never completely 
recovered, aggravated probably by the troubles of the past 
year. His loss was an irreparable blow to Athens ; for 
while he lived he forced his excitable and venturesome 
fellow-countrymen to keep to Ins policy of tiring out their 
enemies by dogged resistance, and not to fritter away their 
strength in distant enterprises. Freed from his restraint 
they gradually began to listen more and more to the grand 
projects of ambitious politicians, which in the end brought 
about their ruin. 



CHAPTER XX 

peloponnesian war — continued 

Dates. b.c. 

Siege of Plataaa, 429-427 

Naval victories of Phormio, 429 

Kevolt of Lesbos, 428 

Surrender of Mitylene : conquest of Lesbos, . 427 

Chief Names. — Ph ormio, Cleon. 

The summer of the year that Pericles died, Archidamus, 
instead of ravaging Attica, advanced with his whole 
army against the little town of Platsea, which was held by 
only 400 of its citizens, with 80 Athenians and 110 women 
to cook for them. The Platseans reminded the Spartan king 
of the oath sworn by the Greeks after the battle of Platsea 
(see p. 121), but he replied that he had only come to 'free' 
the Platseans from their bondage to the Athenians. After 
much negotiation, and a message from the Athenians that 
they would never desert Platsea, the Platseans resolved on 
resistance, though it is difficult to understand what help 
they could have expected. Thus began the famous siege 
of Platsea : all attempts to take the city by storm having 
failed, in spite of overwhelming numbers, Archidamus was 
forced to blockade it ; he built a double line of walls round 
it, in which were the quarters for the troops ; and leaving 
part of his force there with the Boeotians, returned home 
with the rest. 

Meanwhile an important campaign was fought in the north- 

167 



1 68 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



west of Greece, which exhibited, in the most striking manner, 
the wonderful naval superiority of the Athenians. By'request 
of the Ambracians, backed up by the Corinthians, a force 
of 1000 Peloponnesians was sent across to join in an attack 
on Acarnania and compel it to give up the Athenian 
alliance ; a fleet of forty-seven ships was to co-operate. The 
only Athenian force in the neighbourhood was a squadron 
of twenty triremes under Phormio, stationed at Naupactus. 
The Acarnanians themselves repulsed the invasion, owing 




PEL OPONNE SE 



MOUTH OF THE CORINTHIAN GULF 

to the over- confidence of some barbarian auxiliaries accom- 
panying it. After the failure of the land force the fleet 
appeared on the scene : Phormio, in spite of his inferior 



PELOPONNESIAN WAR—CONTINUED 169 

numbers, attacked it ; the superiority of the Athenians at 
sea at this period consisted in the rapidity with which they 
could manoeuvre their ships. At Salamis the two fleets 
simply charged prow to prow ; now the Athenian tactics 
were to pass through the enemies' line, and turning rapidly 
ram the opposing trireme on its unprotected side or stern ; 
this manoeuvre was called the ' diekplus. 5 On this occasion 
the Corinthian admiral in command having a number of 
store-ships with him formed his ships into a circle, prows 
outward, close enough together to prevent the diekplus. 
Phormio rowed round and round the circle in single file. 
The Peloponnesians found it hard to maintain order in 
such a formation, especially as the wind began to rise ; the 
strange manoeuvre of Phormio perplexed them ; and when 
the confusion was at its height, at a signal from Phormio, 
the Athenian ships suddenly turned their prows and 
charged. There was little resistance ; many ships were 
sunk, and twelve were taken with their crews. 

The Spartans were most indignant at the news of this 
defeat, which they could not comprehend. They reinforced 
the fleet till it numbered seventy-seven triremes, and put a 
Spartan in command. The Athenians also reinforced 
Phormio with twenty ships, but this squadron on its way 
made an unsuccessful attack on Crete, and therefore did not 
reach him in time, and he was left with his twenty ships 
against seventy-seven. For seven days the two fleets 
watched one another on opposite sides of the coast outside 
the gulf. The Peloponnesians then sailed into the gulf 
in a column four deep, as if about to attack Naupactus. 
Phormio also was therefore obliged to sail into the gulf 
along the northern shore to save Naupactus. Suddenly 
the Peloponnesian fleet changed its course and bore down 
on him, hoping to cut him off from Naupactus and drive 
him ashore. In this they were only partially successful, for 
the eleven leading ships were too quick and slipped by ; 



1 70 HIS 7 OR Y OF GREECE 

but the nine others were driven ashore. While most of the 
Peloponnesian ships were endeavouring to secure these 
nine, which were stoutly defended by Messenian hoplites, 
twenty ships sailed after the eleven Athenian which fled 
to Naupactus. The Peloponnesians, confident of victory, 
followed in disorder and became separated in the pursuit. 
Suddenly affairs took an unexpected turn ; the eleventh 
Athenian trireme, seeing a merchantman moored outside the 
harbour, rapidly rowed round it, and then unexpectedly 
charged and disabled the Peloponnesian trireme leading the 
pursuit. At this the other ten Athenian triremes came out of 
the harbour and renewed the battle ; the Peloponnesians, 
taken by surprise and in disorder, could make no resistance, 
they were beaten in detail, and the whole fleet was soon in 
retreat ; and Phormio recovered the nine ships that had 
been previously lost. After this startling exhibition of 
Athenian prowess the Peloponnesians gave up their attack 
on Acarnania and left the Athenians in undisputed mastery 
of the sea. 

When the defeated fleet reached Corinth, the Megarians, 
observing the unguarded state of the Peiraeus, persuaded the 
commanders, one of whom was Brasidas, to make a sudden 
attack on it. The crews were marched over the Isthmus, and 
embarked on forty old Megarian triremes. But at the last 
moment they shrank from the enterprise, and attacked 
instead the island of Salamis, capturing three guard-ships, 
ravaging the land, and getting off with their booty in 
safety before the Athenians could come to the rescue. 
There was great indignation at Athens, and henceforth the 
Peiraeus was properly guarded. The same autumn Sitalces, 
the Thracian prince (see p. 166), invaded Macedonia with 
a huge host that caused great alarm in Greece, but the 
exjDedition seems to have been too late in the year, and 
accomplished nothing. Perdiccas induced Sitalces to make 
peace, and the danger passed away. 



PELOPONNESIAN WAR— CONTINUED 171 

In the fourth year of the war (b.c. 428) the Spartans 
renewed the invasion of Attica in spite of the blockade 
of Platsea, which still continued. But the year was 
marked by the revolt of the powerful island of Lesbos, the 
capital of which was Mytilene. Lesbos had always been 
treated with great respect by Athens, and, like Samos, 
permitted to retain its oligarchical government. The 
oligarchs had even before the outbreak of the war been 
intending to revolt, and had only been deterred by the 
refusal of Sparta to break the Thirty Years' Truce by 
sending them aid. Now, however, they thought that 
Athens was so exhausted by the war and the plague that 
the time was ripe for their project. News of the impending 
revolt reached Athens from time to time, but it was not 
believed, and nothing was done, for in fact the Athenians 
were greatly exhausted, and their reserve of 6000 talents 
was all spent except the special fund. At last such 
positive news came, that the fleet of forty ships about to 
start for the usual cruise round the Peloponnese was 
sent against Lesbos instead. The commander hoped to 
surprise Mytilene during a festival, but he failed, and 
then allowed himself to be drawii into negotiations, of 
which the Mytilenean oligarchs took advantage to send 
to Sparta to ask for aid. It was now July, the time of the 
Olympic Festival, and the envoys were sent to it by the 
Spartans to make their appeal to the whole body of the 
Peloponnesians ; and it was resolved to aid the Lesbians by 
a general attack on Athens, the usual invasion having 
already taken place. But the Athenians, with incredible 
exertions, manned a fresh fleet of 100 ships, which so 
intimidated the Peloponnesians that they gave up the 
projected invasion, and prepared a fleet to raise the siege 
of Mytilene. Fighting had begun again there, but the 
Athenian force was not strong enough to effect anything 
decisive ; so in the autumn reinforcements were sent under 



172 BIS TOR V OF GREECE 

a commander named Paches, and Mytilene was closely 
blockaded by land and sea. 

The fifth year of the war (b.c. 427) saw the end of two 
sieges, Mytilene and Plataea. By the beginning of the 
year, Mytilene was in great distress, and the oligarchs were 
already talking of surrender, when a Spartan envoy named 
Salsethus arrived in the city, having evaded the watchfulness 
of the besiegers. He put new life into the besieged by 
declaring that the relieving fleet was at hand ; but days 
passed by, no fleet appeared ; at last Salsethus advised the 
oligarchs to arm the whole people, and make a general sally. 
But when the people got their arms, they showed on which 
side their sympathies were, by demanding that peace should 
be made, and the oligarchs, utterly helpless, were obliged 
to surrender. Seven days after the surrender, the Pelo- 
ponnesian fleet under Alcidas arrived, but finding it was 
too late hastily retreated. 

Paches, having chased the Spartan fleet out of the 
iEgean, and reduced the rest of Lesbos, sent off to Athens 
Salsethus, who was discovered in hiding, and a thousand of 
the most guilty of the oligarchical party. Salsethus was 
put to death, and a meeting of the Ecclesia was held at 
Athens to decide on the punishment of Mytilene. The 
leader of the democratical party was now a man named 
Cleon. He had made himself prominent by attacking 
Pericles in his later years ; he is described by the historian 
Thucydides as a vulgar, incompetent bully, whose only 
weapon was abuse of his opponents ; but Thucydides was 
perhaps influenced in his judgment by personal feelings, as 
will be seen later, and painted his character in too black 
colours. Cleon now proposed and carried the horrible 
decree that all the men of Mytilene, oligarchs and democrats 
alike, should be put to death, the women and children sold 
into slavery ; and a trireme was sent off to Paches with 
orders to this effect. But many of the Athenians repented, 



PELOPONNESIAN WAR— CONTINUED 173 

and saw how wrong and impolitic it was to punish alike the 
rebellious nobles and the democrats who had surrendered 
the city. A second meeting of the Ecclesia was called on 
the next day, and in spite of the strenuous opposition of 
Cleon, the decree was rescinded by a small majority, and it 
was determined that only the guilty prisoners sent by 
Paches should be put to death. A second trireme was 
sent with these counter orders, and by incredible exertions 
arrived only just in time to prevent the original decree 
from being carried out. The fortifications of Mytilene were 
destroyed, her fleet confiscated, and the land of Lesbos 
parcelled out among Athenian settlers, to whom the 
Lesbians paid an annual rent. 

In Plataea by the beginning of this year the continuous 
blockade had produced great distress, for the Athenians, as 
might have been expected, had been unable to give any 
help. It was determined to make an attempt to escape over 
the besiegers 5 lines ; but so desperate did the enterprise 
seem that only half the garrison had sufficient courage to 
make the attempt.. Choosing a moonless, rainy, and windy 
night, the devoted band of Platseans and Athenians, two 
hundred and twenty strong, stole out and by means of ladders 
olimbed the inside wall before the alarm was given ; even 
then the besiegers in the darkness and confusion did not 
know at what point the danger was, and all the fugitives 
except one made good their escape. The remainder held 
out till the summer, and then surrendered on the promise 
of a fair trial ; but they were all put to death by the 
Spartans, who only asked them one question : ' Have you 
during the war done any service to the Lacedaemonians or 
their allies % 5 Plataea was razed to the ground and its sur- 
viving citizens made citizens of Athens. But this is not 
the last we shall hear of the unfortunate little city. 



CHAPTEE XXI 

peloponnesian war (continued) : PEACE of nicias 

Dates. b. c. 

The Athenians seize Pylus, 425 

Battle of Delium. Brasidas takes Amphipolis, . 424 

Battle of Amphipolis, 422 

Peace of Nicias, 421 

Chief Names. — Demosthenes, Brasidas, Cleon, Nicias. 

The sixth year of the war (b.c. 426) there was no invasion 
of Attica ; for there were several earthquakes which so 
alarmed the Spartans that they dismissed the army which 
had already assembled. Athens was, however, visited with 
a renewal of the plague, which broke out for the last time, 
and continued for a year. 

The chief fighting of the year was in the region of Acar- 
nania (see p. 168). The Athenian commander at Naupactus 
was now Demosthenes, an able and energetic soldier. He had 
a scheme for conquering the semi-barbarian iEtolians, next 
the Phocians and Locrians, and then finally attacking Bceotia 
from the East. But the iEtolian mountaineers were 
stronger, and their country more difficult, than he expected, 
and he was compelled to retreat with heavy loss to 
Naupactus ; but he soon retrieved his reputation by help- 
ing the Acarnanians to win a brilliant victory over the 
Ambraciots, who had again attacked them, aided by a 
Peloponnesian force ; the fighting men of Ambracia were 
almost exterminated. Thus, though his great scheme foiled, 
174 



PELOPONNESIAN WAR— CONTINUED 175 



Demosthenes was able to return to Athens with the spoils 
of victory. The Acarnanians and Ambraciots, tired of 
righting, made peace on the condition of both remaining 
neutral in the war ; and the Spartans were obliged to give 
up all attempts in that quarter of Greece. 

The Peloponnesian invasion next year (b.c. 425), the 
seventh year of the war, only lasted fifteen days ; for the 
army was suddenly recalled by the news that the Athenians 
had landed on the Messenian coast and established a forti- 
fied port at Pylus. This was the work of Demosthenes, and 
had come about in the following way : — There was at this 
time Iwar in Sicily between the Ionian colonies and the 
Dorian colonies, headed by Syracuse. The Athenians, con- 
trary to the policy of Pericles, were beginning to interfere 
on behalf of their kinsmen ; and this year despatched a 
fleet of forty ships under Eurymedon to their aid. Eury- 
medon was also to land at 
Corcyra, where a savage 
political conflict was rag- 
ing : the democrats by 
the aid of the Athenians, 
had overcome the nobles 
and ruthlessly massacred 
them ; but a remnant had 
seized a mountain strong- 
hold, and were causing 
great distress in the city 
by their ravages. Demos- 
thenes, who now had no 
actual command, was per- 
mitted to accompany him 
and do what damage he pylus and sphacteria 
could on the voyage round the Peloponnese. His intention 
was, in accordance with Pericles's policy, to build a fort at 
Pylus and plant there a Messenian garrison who would 



^™f 


a 




r* 


lA 1 1 ten i fl^P^»>^^~' w * a! ^ Sv »-v, 


% 


f ^^BJVom 


m ja 


\ ^NA VAR1NO 




MSSEi^ia^EgM 


r m 


^ jl~ ^ 


^ CO 


flHI 


~=^ y 


$ 



1 76 HIS TOR Y OF GREECE 

harass the Spartans and encourage their Helot fellow- 
countrymen to revolt. Pylus was a rocky point forming 
the northern end of a bay, now the famous harbour of 
Navarino ; across the mouth of the bay lay a wooded and 
rocky island, Sphacteria, leaving two entrances to the har- 
bour, which must have been much narrower than they are 
now. 

Eurymedon, anxious to accomplish his voyage, would 
not agree to Demosthenes's proposal ; but the fleet was 
driven into the Bay of Pylus by stress of weather and 
detained there some days ; and so the fort was built and 
Eurymedon left Demosthenes there with five triremes. The 
Spartans in alarm recalled the army from Attica ; the fleet 
also came under Alcidas, and a determined attack was 
made on the fort by land and sea in order to take it before 
the Athenians could send any reinforcements. Demosthenes 
had just time to send off two ships to Eurymedon ; but so 
well had he chosen his position that his little force (two or 
three hundred hoplites and half-armed sailors) were able to 
repulse every attack ; for the landing-place was so narrow that 
only four or five triremes could attack at once. Brasidas 
was in the Spartan fleet and greatly distinguished himself, 
but he was wounded, and, fainting from loss of blood, left 
his shield as a trophy to the Athenians. Meanwhile, to 
prevent a relieving fleet entering the harbour, they deter- 
mined to block up the two channels with ships, and they 
also put a force of hoplites on Sphacteria to prevent a land- 
ing there. Unfortunately, however, the blocking up of the 
channels was not carried out ; and in a few days the fleet 
of Eurymedon returned, sailed into the bay unopposed, and 
easily defeated the fleet of Alcidas. Thus by the careless- 
ness of the Spartans, not only was Pylus relieved, but their 
own hoplites, 420 in number, the majority Spartans of the 
highest families, were hopelessly cut off on Sphacteria. 
The loss of so many citizens would be a great blow to 



PELOPONNESIAN WAR— CONTINUED 177 

Sparta, for the number of true Spartans was very small (see 
p. 41) ; so they at once made a truce with the Athenians 
on the condition of temporarily handing over their defeated 
fleet to them. Ambassadors were now sent to Athens to 
propose peace on the condition that each side should retain 
what they had at the beginning of the war. But Cleon 
demanded that the possessions given up by Athens at the 
Thirty Years' Truce should be restored to her ; and the 
Athenians, flushed with their unexpected success, supported 
him. The Spartan envoys could not accept such monstrous 
terms and left Athens. 

The war began again. But Eurymedon refused to restore 
the Spartan ships, his excuse being some trifling attack on 
the fort during the truce ; the Spartans protested, but to no 
purpose. The Athenians now tried to starve out the 
Spartans on the island ; but while they themselves were in 
difficulties for provisions and water owing to the Spartan 
army on the mainland, the besieged hoplites were fairly 
well supplied. The large rewards offered by the Ephors 
induced the mariners of the neighbouring coast to run the 
blockade on dark stormy nights, often deliberately wrecking 
their ships in order to land the cargoes ; while swimmers 
towed bags of provisions across the bay by night. 

At Athens the impatience was great. The summer was 
passing away ; the fleet would not be able to stay much longer 
on such an exposed anchorage ; and the news of the surrender 
of the Spartans still did not come. Cleon virulently 
attacked the absent generals in the Ecclesia, and at last 
exclaimed that they ought to have boldly attacked the 
Spartan hoplites on Sphacteria, adding that he would have 
done so if he had been in command. At once his political 
opponents caught up his words and proposed that he should 
go : taken aback, he replied that he was not one of the 
generals, but Nicias, leader of the moderate party, offered 
to surrender him his command, and Cleon finally accepted, 

M 



178 HISTORY OF GREECE 

saying that he would bring back the Spartans prisoners in 
twenty clays or perish in the attempt. He only took with 
him a few reinforcements, chiefly light-armed troops. 

On arriving at Pylus he found that the woods which had 
been a great protection to the Spartans had been accidentally 
burnt ; he at once ordered an attack and left it to 
Demosthenes to carry out. A landing was effected, the 
Spartans were driven back by the light troops to the 
extremity of the island, where they were at last surrounded, 
and the survivors 292 in number, 120 being Spartans of 
high rank, were compelled to surrender. Thus Cleon 
performed his rash promise, and Demosthenes lost the credit 
of the greatest success won by Athens during the war. 
The blow to the prestige of the Spartans throughout 
Greece by the surrender of her hoplites was enormous. 
They made repeated efforts to recover the prisoners, for 
they dared not invade Attica, while the lives of so many of 
their citizens were at the mercy of the Athenians (see p. 152); 
but the Athenian demands were too great. The Athenians 
now established at Pylus a permanent garrison of Messen- 
ians brought from Naupactus. Eurymedon proceeded 
with his fleet to Corcyra. The nobles in their stronghold 
surrendered to him, but he handed them over to the 
democrats, and they were all killed to the number of 300 
with the most cold-blooded cruelty. This was the end of 
the civil dissensions of Corcyra, the ferocity of which 
shocked even the Greeks, accustomed as they were to such 
scenes. Eurymedon sailed on to Sicily, but, before he 
could accomplish anything, the Sicilian Greeks made peace 
among themselves. 

The next year (b.c. 424) found the Athenians full of 
confidence and high hopes. They began by inflicting a 
fresh blow on Sparta ; Nicias took the island of Cythera, 
which lay off the most vulnerable part of Laconia and 
was a convenient starting-point for raiding cruises. He 



PELOPONNESIAN WAR—CONTINUED 179 

next destroyed Thyrea on the coast of Laconia itself, where 
the expelled iEginetans were settled, and the unhappy 
iEginetans were all put to death. The Spartans were kept 
in the greatest anxiety from these constant raids of the 
Athenians, while the occupation of Pylus caused such fear of 
a Helot revolt that the Ephors now resolved to get rid of all 
the leading Helots. They treacherously offered freedom to 
all those who considered their services in the war entitled 
them to it ; about two thousand came forward and received 
their freedom, and were crowned with garlands ; but subse- 
quently they all mysteriously disappeared, slain by the 
secret police (see p. 43). 

The Athenians relieved from the annual invasion, and 
feeling that the tide of success was now flowing in their 
favour, began to entertain hopes of recovering their old land 
empire which they had lost after the defeat of Coronea (see 
p. 152). Their first attempt was made on Megara. That 
unhappy city had suffered intensely not only from the inva- 
sions of the Athenians, but also from a body of aristocratic 
exiles; and a conspiracy was formed among some of the demo- 
crats to hand over the city to Athens. Demosthenes was 
sent to co-operate, and the conspirators admitted him within 
the Long Walls ; but they were prevented from opening the 
gates of the city. Demosthenes blockaded the Peloponnesian 
garrison who had fled into the port of Nissea and compelled 
it to surrender. He hoped now to be able to take the city 
itself, but was prevented by the arrival of Brasidas. That 
brave soldier the only able general produced by Sparta 
during the early period of the war, was collecting a small 
force to march to Thrace at the invitation of Perdiccas, 
king of Macedonia, and strike a blow at Athens by inducing 
her subjects in Chalcidice to revolt. Happening to be at 
the Isthmus at this critical moment, he marched against 
Nisaea reinforced by troops from Boeotia, and offered battle 
to the Athenians, which they did not venture to accept. 



180 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Brasidas soon afterwards went away to resume his prepara- 
tions, and a revolution took place at Megara ; the exiles 
were recalled and an oligarchy established ; many of the 
democrats fled to Athens, of those that remained a hundred 
leading men were put to death. 

Thus the first attempt of the Athenians to regain their 
land empire resulted only in partial success, the capture of 
Nissea ; their second attempt was more ambitious, no less 
than the subjugation of Boeotia, but it met with complete 
failure. The scheme was a combined attack on Boeotia 
from two sides at once ; Demosthenes was to start from his 
old post Naupactus with Acarnanian reinforcements, and 
land in the south of Boeotia, while Hippocrates invaded 
it from Attica with the main Athenian army ; the invasion 
was to be assisted by a rising of the democratic party, many 
of whom were in exile. But the plot was betrayed to the 
Thebans, and a mistake was made about the day ; so 
Demosthenes, landing before Hippocrates had started, found 
the Thebans ready to receive him and retreated by sea ; and 
Hippocrates when he at length crossed the frontier found 
no one to co-operate with him. He, however, fortified a 
Boeotian temple, called Delium, strongly situated on the 
Euboean strait, and was just beginning to return to Attica 
when the whole Boeotian army approached. The Battle 
of Delium which now took place was the first great land 
fight that was fought during the war. The hoplites on the 
two sides were about equal, 7000 strong, but the Thebans 
were superior in cavalry, the Athenians in light infantry. 
The Athenian hoplites were drawn up as usual, eight deep, 
so were the Boeotians, but the Thebans themselves were in 
a column twenty -five deep, the front ranks of which were 
composed of a body of picked men called the Sacred Band. 

When the two armies closed in the charge the Athenian 
right was victorious over the Boeotians, while the heavy 
Theban column forced back their left ; but some Theban 



PELOPONNESIAN WAR— CONTINUED 181 

cavalry suddenly charged their victorious right and turned 
its victory into defeat, and their whole line gave way and 
fled in all directions, hotly followed by the cavalry till night 
put an end to the pursuit. Hippocrates and one thousand 
hoplites were slain. Seventeen days after the battle the 
temple of Delium was taken by the Thebans. 

But this blow, terrible as it was, was not the only one 
that the Athenians were destined to suffer. Late in the 
year came the news that the important Thracian colony of 
Amphipolis (see p. 154) was in the hands of Brasidas. 
Brasidas had accomplished his overland march in safety 
and reached Thrace with a little army of 1700 hoplites, 
many of whom were Helots. He proclaimed himself as 
come to free the Greek cities from their slavery to Athens, 
and his frank bearing and persuasive eloquence, very rare 
in a Spartan, won him many adherents, while in most of 
the towns there was an oligarchical faction ready to join 
him. Having won over one or two smaller towns he 
advanced against Amphipolis. The approach of Brasidas 
was a surprise ; Thucydides, the historian, who commanded 
the Athenian squadron in the Thracian waters, was at the 
time away at the island of Thasos. Brasidas seized the 
bridge with little resistance during a snowstorm and 
captured all the citizens he found outside the walls. 
Great was the commotion in the city : the Athenian 
party sent off at once to Thucydides, but Brasidas offered 
such easy terms, allowing any one who liked to depart with 
all their possessions, that when Thucydides arrived he 
found Amphipolis in the hands of Brasidas and had to 
content himself with saving Eion. For his neglect of duty 
Thucydides, on his return to Athens, was banished, probably 
on the motion of Cleon. 

Thus the next year (the ninth year of the war), b.c. 423, 
did not find the Athenians in such a state of confidence as 
the preceding year. And when ambassadors come from the 



182 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



Spartans, who were still anxious to recover their prisoners, 
they agreed to a truce for one year, during which terms 
of peace could be arranged. In Thrace two more cities 
revolted, but an expedition sent under Nicias re- 
covered one. No terms of peace were arranged, and in 
B.C. 422 (the tenth year of the war) the truce came to an 
end. But both sides were so weary, and the Athenians so 
disinclined for offensive action after their defeat at Delium, 
that no fighting took place in Greece itself. But Nicias 
had done so little in Thrace that a fresh expedition was 
sent under Cleon, whose success at Pylus had inspired him 
with a thirst for military distinction. He recaptured one 
town, Torone, which had revolted, and then sailed for 
Amphipolis and landed at Eion, where he lay several 
days waiting for reinforcements from Thrace and Perdiccas, 
who had quarrelled with Brasidas, and was now on the 
Athenian side. But, owing to the impatience of his 
soldiers, he marched out to reconnoitre, before the arrival 

of the reinforce- 
ments. Brasidas 
was encamped on 
the high ground 
west of the river, 
for the bridge 
was now connect- 
ed with the city 
wall by a stock- 
ade, so that he 
was in no danger 
of being cut off 
amphipolis from the city. 

Cleon, seeing the city practically defenceless, allowed his 
men to get out of hand and approach near the walls. 
Presently Brasidas was seen to cross the river, and then 
news was brought that the feet of a large force of men and 




PELOPONNESIAN WAR— CONTINUED 183 

horses could be seen under the gates. Still unwilling to 
fight before his reinforcements arrived, Cleon gave the order 
to retreat, thinking that if Brasidas came out to attack him 
with his full force he would have time to form line of 
battle. But Brasidas adopted other tactics. He suddenly- 
sallied forth at the head of 150 men against the Athenian 
column which was marching in some disorder, and routed 
the centre by his unexpected onset ; at this the left fled 
panic-stricken down the road to Eion, while another divi- 
sion attacked the Athenian right which was still on the 
high ground. Cleon himself who was with it fled, but 
was ^overtaken and slain : his men, who had had time 
to form, resisted bravely till attacked in flank and rear 
by cavalry and light troops, when they, too, fled. Of 
the force with which Cleon marched out of Eion, only half, 
about 600, got back in safety, and the armament at once 
sailed back to Athens. The loss of the enemy was only 
seven, but it included Brasidas himself, who fell in the 
moment of victory. The people of Amphipolis showed 
the greatest honour to Brasidas, they buried his body 
within the city, and henceforward regarded him as their 
'Oekist' or founder. Amphipolis never again came into 
the possession of the Athenians. 

The Athenians were thoroughly disheartened by these 
continual reverses. Cleon and Brasidas, the chief advocates 
of the war, were dead. The result was that early 
next year (b.c. 421), the eleventh year of the war, a 
Peace for Fifty Years was concluded between Sparta 
and Athens, commonly known as the Peace of Nicias, he 
being the chief negotiator on the Athenian side. The 
main terms of the treaty were a mutual exchange of 
prisoners and places taken ; thus the Spartans recovered 
the prisoners taken at Pylus ; the Athenians were to 
give up Pylus and Cythera in return for Amphipolis. 
Thus, after a terrible expenditure of blood and treasure, the 



184 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Peloponnesian war seemed about to end in the contending 
parties being exactly in the position in which they began 
the war. But such a peace could be no real ending ; the 
quarrel was one that had to be fought out to the bitter 
end ; how the war was renewed will be described in the 
following chapter. 



CHAPTER XXII 

AFTER THE PEACE OF NICIAS. THE ARGIVE LEAGUE 

Dates. B.C. 

Alliance between Athens and Argos, . . . 420 

Battle of Mantinea, 418 

The Athenians seize Melos, 416 

Chief iVames.— Alcibiades, Nicias. 

Difficulties very soon began to arise with regard to the 
Peace. The Corinthians and Thebans were dissatisfied 
with the conditions, and refused to subscribe to it, but 
they refrained from hostilities. Amphipoiis was not 
restored to the Athenians, owing to the refusal of its 
inhabitants ; whereupon the AtheniamTrefused to give up 
Pylus. It happened also that this year a Thirty Years' 
Truce between Sparta and Argos expired, which added 
additional uncertainty to the prospect, and Sparta in 
alarm made a separate alliance with Athens. The result 
was that some of the dissatisfied states invited Argos to 
put itself at the head of a league against Sparta ; the 
Corinthians took the leading part, but, when they found 
the Boeotians would not join, they returned to their 
allegiance to Sparta. Elis and Mantinea (a state in Arcadia) 
joined Argos, and hostilities soon began against Sparta, 
but with no decisive result. 

It was unfortunate for Athens that at this critical state 
of affairs the leader of the democrats, now that Cleon 
was dead, was a still more dangerous politician named 

185 



186 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Alcibi&des. Young, handsome, wealthy, of noble birth, and 
brilliant ability, but of an utterly reckless, depraved, and 
vicious character, such a man was calculated to dazzle the 
light-headed democracy of Athens and to lead it into 
dangerous paths diametrically opposed to the policy so 
strongly urged by Pericles (see p. 162) whose genera- 
tion was now passing away. The chief opponent of 
Alcibiades was Nicias, leader of the moderate party, a 
respectable general who had obtained a reputation for 
success in some not very important operations, a man of 
unblemished character and deep religious feeling whose 
virtues gained him more respect than his abilities. 

Alcibiades warmly espoused the cause of Argos, his 
policy being to create a powerful confederacy against Sparta 
under the united leadership of Athens and Argos. In B.C. 
420 the Argives sent ambassadors to Athens to ask for her 
alliance, and the Spartans at the same time sent ambassadors 
to settle the points in the treaty about Pylus and Amphi- 
polis which were still unsettled. But Alcibiades deceived 
the Spartan ambassadors by a trick, and persuaded the 
Athenians to join the Argive alliance. 

The relations of the various states were at this time in 
a strange confusion. Athens had made an alliance with 
Sparta and also with Argos the enemy of Sparta ; while 
Corinth, though an ally of Sparta, had never agreed to the 
Peace, and had also for a time been in alliance with Argos. 

The Olympic Games of this year were the first at which 
Athens had been permitted to attend since the beginning 
of the war ; and there was much curiosity among the 
Greeks to see what sort of a display the Athenian deputa- 
tion would make ; for it was thought that Athens must be 
exhausted by the long years of war. But the Athenian 
representative was Alcibiades, and he with his great wealth 
was able to make a most magnificent display, and so impress 
the Greeks with the sense of the inexhaustible resources of 



AFTER THE PEACE OF NICIAS 187 

Athens. Alcibiades entered three chariots for the chariot- 
race and won the first, second, and fourth prize. Sparta, 
on the other hand, was excluded from the games by the 
Eleans, who presided, for an alleged act of wa*r during the 
truce, a striking proof how low she had now fallen in the 
eyes of the Greeks. 

In b.c. 419 fighting began in the Peloponnese, but it was 
for some time indecisive ; the Athenians as yet sent^no 
troops to the assistance of their allies, though Alcibiades 
was in the Peloponnese busily engaged in consolidating the 
League. Next year (b.c. 418) Agis might have destroyed 
the Argive army, but allowed himself to be led into negotia- 
tions and concluded a short truce ; the Athenians now sent a 
thousand hoplites and four hundred cavalry to the assistance 
of the Argives ; and after the conclusion of the truce the forces 
of the two confederacies met on the plain of Mantinea. On the 
Argive right the Mantineans and a picked force of Argive 
nobles called the ' Thousand ' routed the Spartan left wing, 
but then f pursued them too far ; meanwhile the Spartan 
centre had utterly routed the Argive centre, and then fallen 
on the flank of the Athenians who were on the Argive left : 
the Athenians were only saved from destruction by the ap- 
pearance of the Mantineans and Argive Thousand, against 
whom Agis now advanced, but seeing the rest of the army 
defeated they made no attempt to fight, and retreated into 
Mantinea. Thus the Spartans were completely victorious : 
the Argive league from which Alcibiades had hoped so 
much was ruined in a single day, while the prestige of 
Sparta, which had fallen owing to her failure to achieve any 
great success during the war, and the disaster of Pylus, 
was now completely re-established. 

Feeling themselves unable to meet the Spartans in the 
field the Argives now began to build ' Long Walls } to the 
sea, five miles distant, in which they were aided by the 
Athenians. But Agis came with an army and destroyed 



1 88 HISTORY OF GREECE 

the walls before they were finished. Argos being thus 
sufficiently weakened and humbled, Sparta made no further 
attempt to conquer her. And for the next few years Greece 
remained in a condition half-way between peace and war. 

In spite of the failure of his schemes in the Peloponnese, 
Alcibiades still retained great influence over the Athenians, 
who were in a restless state, eager to strike some great blow, 
but unable to make up their minds where to strike it. 
Their right policy would have been to reconquer Aniphipolis 
and the Chalcidian states, but that does not seem to have 
been sufficient for the ambitious mind of Alcibiades. A 
small force was indeed to have been sent under Nicias to 
attack Amphipolis with the help of Perdiccas (b.c. 417), 
but the fickle Perdiccas proved faithless and the expedition 
was given up. 

In the summer of B.C. 416 they sent a force to compel 
the island of Melos to join the Confederacy of Delos. 
Melos was an utterly unimportant island among the 
Cyclades ; it was the nearest of them to the Peloponnese 
and was inhabited by Lacedaemonian colonists, for which 
reason probably it had never joined the League. All the 
Melians asked was to be allowed to remain neutral ; the 
Athenians refused, starved the island into surrender, and 
then put all the fighting men to death, and sold the rest of 
the inhabitants into slavery. This brutal and utterly 
unprovoked act of aggression is said to have been the 
work of Alcibiades. It was not only a crime but a blunder ; 
for the miserable fate of the Melians caused a great sensa- 
tion throughout the whole of Greece, and made the enemies 
of Athens still more determined to effect the overthrow of 
the i tyrant state.' 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE EXPEDITION AGAINST SYRACUSE 

Dates, B.C. 
Sailing of the Expedition against Syracuse. Muti- 
lation of the Hermae. 415 

Siege of Syracuse, 414 

Chief Names, — Alcibiades, Nicias, Lamachus, Hermocrates, . 
Gylippus. 

The punishment of Athens for her treatment of Melos 
was not long delayed. The very next year, again by the 
advice of their evil genius Alcibiades, the Athenians engaged 
in the fatal expedition against Syracuse which was the cause 
of their downfall. It will be remembered how in the early 
years of the Peloponnesian war the Athenians had sent a 
squadron to Sicily to aid the Ionian cities in their war 
against the Dorians, and how the Sicilians had made peace 
among themselves. Now again war broke out between the 
native city of Egesta and the Dorian Selinus, both in the 
west of Sicily, and the people of Egesta sent to Athens to 
implore aid, telling them that there was a danger that the 
Dorians under Syracuse would conquer the whole island, 
and promising them plenty of money in support of the 
expedition. Thereupon the Athenians sent ambassadors to 
Sicily to report on the statements of the Egestaeans. The 
ambassadors returned in the spring of b.c 415, bringing 
back a glowing account of their wealth ; and it was 

189 



190 HISTORY OF GREECE 

proposed to send an expedition of sixty ships to Sicily 
under Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lainachus, a good soldier but 
a man of no influence. Alcibiades strongly urged the ex- 
pedition, for he had visions of the glory he should win by 
founding an Athenian empire in Sicily. Nicias naturally 
was utterly opposed to it, and pointed out how dangerous 
it was to make such a distant expedition against Sicily, 
while Sparta and her allies were still hostile, only waiting 
for an opportunity to renew the war against Athens, and 
Amphipolis and the Chalcidian cities were still unsubdued. 
Finding all his arguments in vain, Nicias tried to check the 
ardour of the Athenians by saying that the armament was 
not strong enough. But he was asked what force he would 
consider enough : unable to avoid the question he replied 
a hundred ships, five thousand hoplites, and everything else 
in proportion. Whereupon the Athenians voted what he 
asked for, and the whole state threw itself enthusiastically 
into the work of preparation. 

When the expedition was almost ready to start, one of the 
most mysterious events in Greek history occurred. There 
were at Athens in front of temples and public and private 
buildings busts of the god Hermes, which were regarded by 
the Athenians with the greatest reverence. One morning it 
was discovered that these Hermae, all except one it is said, 
had been defaced beyond recognition. The authors and 
motive of this sacrilegious action have ever remained a 
mystery. Perhaps it was hoped to frighten the Athenians 
from the Sicilian expedition, or it may have been to ruin 
Alcibiades by throwing suspicion on him, for Alcibiades 
was notorious for his daring impiety. In the excited state 
of public feeling the Mutilation of the Hermge naturally threw 
the city into a fever, for it could only have been effected by 
a very numerous conspiracy. It was determined to discover 
the perpetrators of the outrage, and the air was full of sus- 
picion. No information could be discovered about the 



THE EXPEDITION A GAINST SYRACUSE 191 

Hermae, but a charge was brought against Alcibiades of 
holding a mock celebration of the Sacred Mysteries of 
Eleusis (see p. 20), and his enemies attacked him in the 
Ecclesia ; he demanded to be put on trial at once, and not 
to be sent to Sicily with so grave a charge hanging over his 
head, but his request was refused. 

At last the day of departure arrived. The troops marched 
down to the Peiraeus at daybreak, accompanied by the 
entire population, many to bid farewell to friends and rela- 
tions, others from curiosity to see the greatest and most 
splendid armament that had ever started on so distant a 
campaign. Prayer was offered to the gods, in which all 
present joined, libations were poured in gold and silver 
goblets from every trireme, and the Paean, or song of victory, 
was sung ; then the signal to start was given, the triremes 
racing with one another as far as iEgina. Corcyra was the 
first halting-place ; there the contingents of the allies and 
the provision ships joined. The whole armament now 
numbered a hundred and thirty four triremes, of which a 
hundred were Athenian ; five thousand hoplites, of which 
two thousand were Athenians and five hundred Argives, 
with light troops ; in addition there were the provision 
ships, which were very numerous, and many private traders 
who hoped to make profit out of the expedition. 

Three fast triremes were sent ahead to announce at Egesta 
the approach of the expedition, and to obtain the promised 
money from them. Then the whole expedition crossed from 
Corcyra to Italy and coasted along Magna Graecia ; at once 
the Athenians began to meet with disappointment, not a 
city would join them. Rhegium was the first town to allow 
them even to buy provisions and encamp outside its walls ; 
but Rhegium refused to do more than remain neutral. 
Here they waited for the report of the three triremes, which 
soon arrived and brought a second disappointment. It 
turned out that the ambassadors originally sent to Egesta 



192 HISTORY OF GREECE 

had been deceived by a trick, and that all the money that 
could be obtained from Egesta was thirty talents. 

Under these new circumstances the three generals de- 
liberated as to their course of action. Nicias was for simply 
making a display of the power of Athens, if possible forcing 
Selinus to come to terms with Egesta, and then returning 
home. Lamachus advised that a sudden attack should be 
made on Syracuse while it was unprepared. Alcibiades 
proposed to wait and negotiate with the Sicilian Greeks and 
native Sicels in order to obtain a base of operations before 
proceeding to attack Syracuse. This plan, which was the 
worst of the three, was adopted, Lamachus voting for it 
when he found that his own plan, which would probably 
have succeeded, met with no support. 

The adoption of Alcibiades's plan probably saved Syracuse; 
for though rumours had from time to time arrived of the 
intentions of Athens, they had been scouted by the 
Syracusans as utterly absurd, in spite of the earnest warn- 
ings of one of their leading men named Hermocrates, the 
Syracusan hero of the war. When therefore news came 
that the armament was actually in Italy, Syracuse was 
wholly unprepared and open to attack. Finding, however, 
that they were not attacked, the Syracusans set about col- 
lecting forces and preparing for defence. 

Part of the Athenian armament now crossed the strait of 
Messina from Ehegium and made a demonstration before 
Syracuse ; Naxos joined them, as also did Catana, after the 
Athenian hoplites had accidentally obtained entrance within 
the walls. Catana, about twenty miles north of Syracuse, 
now became the headquarters of the whole armament, and 
one or two fruitless expeditions were made thence. 

Meanwhile, after the fleet had sailed from Athens, the 
excitement about the mutilation of the HermaB broke out 
afresh, for the people began to connect the outrage with 
an oligarchical conspiracy. Informers came forward in 



THE EXPEDITION A GAINS T S YRA C USE 1 93 

numbers, and many citizens were thrown into prison on 
suspicion, and some were put to death. The enemies of 
Alcibiades took advantage of this state of things to press 
their charges against him, and the government trireme, the 
Salaminia, was sent to Catana to order him to return home 
and be tried on the charge of profaning the Mysteries, there 
being still no evidence to connect him with the mutilation 
of the Hermse. Alcibiades obeyed the order ; but in the 
course of the voyage home he succeeded in escaping, and 
eventually fled to Sparta, burning with a desire for revenge 
on his native country. 

Nicias and Lamachus left alone in command made 
various attempts to win over more cities, but without suc- 
cess ; then in the autumn, after enticing the Syracusan 
army to Catana on the pretence that the Catanseans would 
betray the Athenian army to them, they landed in the Bay 
or Great Harbour of Syracuse. A land battle was fought 
in which the Athenians were victorious, but, being unable 
to complete their victory from want of cavalry, they sailed 
away, and, after an unsuccessful attempt to win over 
Messana, wintered at Naxos. The Syracusans spent the 
winter in strengthening the fortifications of their city. 

Syracuse is situated on a rounded promontory bordered 
by low but steep cliffs. From this promontory a table-land 
about two miles broad called Epipolse extends inland, 
rising with a gentle slope and gradually narrowing to a 
point where it joins the mountains of the interior about 
three miles from the sea. South of this promontory is the 
Bay or Great Harbour of Syracuse, a semi-circular bay 
more than two miles across at its broadest part, and less than 
a mile across at its entrance. Syracuse consisted of two towns : 
the Inner or Old Town on Ortygia, originally an island, 
but now connected with the mainland, and the Outer or 
New Town on the mainland. Ortygia and the Outer City 
were separately fortified, but there was about a mile of open 

N 



194 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



ground between them. Between Ortygia and the mainland 
on the seaward side was the Smaller Harbour, the real 
harbour of the Syracusans, where their fleet and docks 




A A New Syracusan City-wall. 

n c Syracusan Cross-walls, taken by the Athenians. 

D D Gylippus's Cross-walls. 

E Labdalum. 

F The Athenian ' Circle.' 

G G The Athenian Lines (completed). 
H H ,, ,, (uncompleted). 

I Station of the Athenian Fleet ) during the latter part of the 

J Athenian Camp J siege. 



The Syracusans, by the advice of Hermocrates, built a 
new wall from the Great Harbour across Epipolas to the 
outer sea, thus uniting Ortygia and the Outer City, as well 
as the hitherto unfortified suburbs, in one fortification ; this 



THE EXPEDITION AGAINST SYRACUSE 195 

wall made the task of surrounding the city much more 
difficult than it would have been if the^ Athenians had 
followed Lamachus's advice and attacked during the pre- 
ceding summer. 

Hermocrates also sent ambassadors to Greece to ask for 
help, who reached Sparta just at the same time as 
Alcibiades. Alcibiades advised the Spartans (1) to send a 
force to Syracuse as soon as possible, or at least to send a 
single Spartan to take command ; and (2) also to renew 
their attacks on Attica; but, instead of sending an army 
every summer for a few weeks, to fortify Decelea (see map, 
p. 146), a hill fourteen miles from Athens, and keep a per- 
manent garrison there, which would annoy the Athenians 
just as Pylus had annoyed the Spartans ; and (3) to 
make the naval allies of Athens revolt. The Spartans did 
not as yet renew the war with Athens ; but they determined 
to send a Spartan named Gylippus to the aid of Syracuse, 
and forces as soon as possible. 

With the spring of b.c. 414 the siege of Syracuse began. 
The Athenians landed a mile to the north of Syracuse, and 
so were able to seize the upper slopes of Epipolse, of which 
they knew the importance ; the Syracusans, who were 
expecting them to land on the other side in the Great 
Harbour, attempted to dislodge them, but were driven into 
the city with considerable loss. The Athenians now built 
a fort called Labdalum near the summit of Epipolas, and 
then marching down towards the city, began a large round 
fort, called the ' Circle/ in front of the Syracusan wall, 
which was intended to be the centre of their besieging 
lines. The Syracusans felt so conscious of their inferiority 
that they did not dare to interrupt the work ; but they built 
a cross wall from their own wall to the edge of Epipolse, 
crossing the intended line of the Athenian fortification south 
of the Circle. The Athenians took no notice of the Syracusan 
cross-wall until they had completed the Circle ; they then 



196 HISTORY OF GREECE 

surprised and took it. The defenders fled into Syracuse, 
and in pursuing them some of the Athenians actually 
penetrated through the gate into the city, but were driven 
out again. 

The Athenians now built their lines from the circle to the 
south edge of Epipolee, and the Syracusans built a new cross- 
wall across the low marshy ground south of Epipolas to the 
river Anapus, which flows into the Great Harbour ; this 
would prevent the Athenian lines from being continued down 
to the shore of the Great Harbour. Lamachus, however, 
skilfully brought his men across the marsh, and surprised 
the cross-wall ; but in the fighting that followed, the 
Athenians, attempting to cut off some of the defenders, 
were thrown into confusion. Lamachus by his vigour 
restored the fortunes of the day, but was himself killed. 
The Athenian fleet now sailed round from the original land- 
ing-place into the Great Harbour, and threatened the rear 
of the Syracusans, who retreated into the city, and made no 
further attempts to hinder the Athenian works ; and the 
Athenians proceeded to build their lines from the shore of 
the Great Harbour to the cliff of Epipolae. The Syracusans 
now were in the greatest despair ; they would soon be 
wholly blockaded, and no help had come from Sparta. 
Accordingly, they began to make overtures of peace to 
Nicias ; but nothing definite was settled. Nicias was con- 
vinced that Syracuse would soon surrender ; but he was 
unfortunately suffering from a painful internal disease, and 
his very confidence made him inactive in prosecuting the 
siege. The result was that though the lines from the Circle 
to the Great Harbour were finished, those on the north of 
the Circle were left unfinished, though the stone and wood 
was in position ready for the work to be completed. 

Meanwhile Gylippus was on the west coast of Greece at 
the island of Leucas preparing forces. He was kept in- 
formed of the progress of the siege, but felt little hope that 



THE EXPEDITION AGAINST SYRACUSE 197 

he could be in time. Soon news came that Syracuse was 
wholly blockaded, and Gylippus, despairing of being able 
to enter Syracuse, sailed to Italy with only four ships to 
try to preserve the cities of Magna Grsecia. While there, 
however, he heard that the Athenian walls north of the 
Circle were still uncompleted ; whereupon, evading the 
Athenian look-out squadron, he passed through the straits 
of Messina, and landed at Himera, where he began to collect 
troops for the relief of Syracuse. At the same time a 
Corinthian trireme reached Syracuse with the news that 
Gylippus was on his way ; and the Syracusans thought no 
more about surrender. Nicias must also have known of 
the proceedings of Gylippus ; but he took absolutely no 
steps against him. Soon Gylippus appeared over the 
summit of Epipolae at the head of about 3000 men, com- 
posed of the crews of his ships Himerseans and native 
Sicels, and marched in through the unfinished part of the 
Athenian lines without the slightest opposition from Nicias. 
From this moment fortune entirely changed ; so great was 
the effect of the arrival of a single Spartan. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

RUIN OF THE EXPEDITION AGAINST SYRACUSE (B.C. 413) 

Chief Names. — Nicias, Demosthenes, Gylippus. 

Gylippus's first act was to surprise and capture the 
Athenian fort of Labdalum ; he then began to build a 
cross-wall to the north of the Circle, using the stones and 
timber collected there by the Athenians. Two battles were 
now fought : in the first the Athenians were victorious, but 
in the second, which Gylippus took care should be fought 
on more open ground, the Syracusan cavalry broke the 
Athenian left wing, and the whole army was routed. This 
was the first defeat on land sustained by the Athenians, 
and put an end to any possibility of success. Gylippus 
now carried the cross-wall right past the Athenian lines, 
then built another wall from it to the summit of Epipola3. 
Having thus rendered Syracuse safe from being blockaded, 
and advised the Syracusans, who had been reinforced by 
twelve Corinthian ships, to get their fleet ready to attack 
the Athenians by sea, he left Syracuse to collect reinforce- 
ments from different parts of Sicily. Meanwhile Nicias, 
having lost the command of Epipolre, had built a fort on 
Plemmyrium, the headland south of the Great Harbour, and 
removed thither all his stores from the Circle ; he also sent 
a despatch home entreating the Athenians to recall him, or 
else to send out a second expedition as large as the first ; 
for instead of besieging Syracuse he himself was now 

198 



RUIN OF THE EXPEDITION, B.C. 413 199 

practically besieged, his numbers were reduced, his ships 
were rotten, and he himself was suffering from illness. 
Thus the year which had opened so brightly for the 
Athenians ended in gloom and failure. This despatch from 
Nicias was a bitter disappointment to the Athenians ; but 
they would not give up the struggle, in spite of the fact 
that their relations with Sparta were growing worse, and 
the war was on the point of breaking out again. They 
sent off Eurymedon at once with ten triremes and money, 
with the news that Demosthenes would be despatched with 
the required force in the spring. 

Early next year (b.c. 413), while Demosthenes was en- 
gaged -in preparing his expedition, reinforcements of 1500 
hoplites were despatched from Thebes, Corinth, and the 
Peloponnese, and landed safely in Syracuse. Meantime 
Gylippus, having returned with his Sicilian reinforcements, 
renewed his attacks on the Athenians ; having beaten their 
army last year, his object was now to beat their fleet, and 
then they would be at his mercy. Accordingly the Syra- 
cusans came out of their harbours with eighty ships, the 
Athenians put out against them with sixty, and after an 
obstinate engagement the Syracusans were defeated, losing 
eleven ships to the Athenians' three ; but, during the fight, 
Gylippus surprised and took Plemmyrium with all the 
money and stores kept there. This was a severe blow to 
the Athenians ; besides the loss of the stores, their fleet had 
to take up a new station near their camp in the recess of 
the Great Harbour, while the Syracusans now held both 
sides of the mouth and interfered with the bringing in of 
supplies. The Syracusans though defeated were encouraged 
by the result, as they had made a better fight than they had 
expected. They built fresh ships and by the advice 
of the Corinthians, who had themselves adopted this 
plan with success, made the bows of their triremes of 
extra strength and thickness. Although they knew that 



200 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Demosthenes was at hand with his fresh fleet, the Athenians, 
for the honour of their navy, did not decline battle. Their 
available ships were seventy-five against eighty. On the 
first day there was only indecisive skirmishing, for the 
Athenians would not charge the heavy Syracusan ships 
prow to prow, and they had not room to perform their 
ordinary tactics properly, as the fighting was now inside the 
Great Harbour. After an interval of a day the Syracusans 
again appeared and similar skirmishing took place ; about 
mid-day the Syracusans retired, and the Athenians, thinking 
that the fighting was over for the day, disembarked and set 
about getting their dinners. Suddenly the Syracusans, 
who by previous arrangement had had a meal ready pre- 
pared for them, reappeared ; the Athenians scrambled on 
board, most of them still dinnerless, and, impatient to make 
an end of the fighting, boldly charged the enemy. The 
Syracusan tactics were successful ; seven Athenian triremes 
were destroyed and many others terribly damaged. Thus 
the Syracusans established their superiority by sea as 
well as by land. 

But almost immediately the fleet of Demosthenes, with 
colours flying and trumpets sounding, sailed majestically 
into the Great Harbour. He brought seventy - three 
triremes, 5000 hoplites, and a large number of light troops, 
to the utter dismay of the Syracusans who imagined 
Athens to be too much occupied at home to be able to 
despatch so large a force. The Athenians were now 
superior again by land and sea ; but Demosthenes, after a 
review of the situation, perceived that the only chance 
of success was to take the Syracusan wall on Epipola? ; 
if that failed there was nothing for it but to abandon 
the siege and return home. So he at once attacked the wall 
with battering-rams and other means, but to no purpose ; 
every attempt failed. 

He then determined to attack it from the rear by means 



RUIN OF THE EXPEDITION, B.C. 413 201 

of a night march round its western extremity, which rested 
on a steep cliff near the summit of Epipoke. This device 
was at first successful. Demosthenes found himself in rear 
of the wall without his march having been discovered by 
the enemy, and took the first of four forts which had been 
built by Gylippus to protect the wall. But, in pursuing 
the retreating Syracusans, the Athenians fell into disorder, 
and the foremost of them were met and defeated by the 
Boeotian contingent which was advancing in serried ranks 
to the support of the Syracusans. The Syracusans now 
rallied, while the defeated Athenians, falling back on the 
main body in the darkness, made the disorder worse. Soon 
all was confusion, owing to the difficulty of distinguishing 
friends and foes ; the triumphant shouts of the Syracusans 
seemed everywhere, for the Dorian Argives in the Athenian 
army had the same war-cry as the Dorian Syracusans ; the 
confusion became panic, and the whole army fled in utter 
rout back to the camp ; but many perished leaping down 
the cliffs, or lost their way in the hills, and were cut to 
pieces next day by the Syracusan cavalry. 

Demosthenes and Eurymedon now advised instant 
departure, but Nicias would not consent, so afraid was he 
of returning to Athens unsuccessful. But after some time, 
Gylippus, who had been absent since the night attack 
collecting more reinforcements, returned with a considerable 
force ; Nicias now gave way and everything was ready for 
the retreat when a total eclipse of the moon occurred 
(August 27, b.c. 413), and the soothsayers declared that the 
departure must be postponed for a month, and the super- 
stitious Nicias insisted upon obeying their directions. 

The Syracusans, who had discovered the intentions of the 
Athenians, determined to frustrate them. With seventy- 
six ships they attacked the Athenians, who put out with 
eighty-six and defeated them with the loss of eighteen ships, 
Eurymedon being slain. The Athenians were now in a 



202 . HISTORY OF GREECE 

desperate strait, for they could not retreat even by sea ; and 
Gylippus blocked up the entrance of the Great Harbour by 
mooring merchantmen from Ortygia to Plemmyrium. 

As a last chance the Athenians launched every ship that 
could possibly be considered seaworthy, a hundred and ten 
in number, and put on board all the troops they could in 
order to try to force their way out. The Syracusans could 
muster only eighty vessels to oppose them, but they were 
in a better condition. The Athenians reached the barrier, 
and were trying to break it when they were assailed 
on all sides by the Syracusans ; a long and desperate 
struggle followed, the Athenians fighting with the courage 
of despair, the Syracusans with the confidence of victory. 
There was no room for the manoeuvring, in which the 
Athenians were so superior ; whenever two triremes came 
in collision the soldiers on board fought as if they were on 
land. 

The shore of the Great Harbour was thronged with 
spectators who watched with terrible interest the fight on 
which their fate hung, cheering when they saw one of their 
ships successful, and uttering loud lamentations when they 
saw one worsted. But after many hours 5 heroic effort the 
Athenians were no nearer victory ; at last they began to 
waver, the Syracusans pressed on with renewed vigour, and 
groans and wailings rose from the land army as the whole 
fleet was seen retreating with all haste to the shore. In 
this terrible conflict the Athenians lost fifty triremes, the 
Syracusans thirty. Demosthenes wished to make a second 
attempt to break out at daybreak, for in numbers the 
Athenians were still superior, but the sailors refused to 
fight again. 

All hope of escaping by sea was now gone ; it only 
remained to retreat by land into the interior which 
was inhabited by the native Sicels. It was intended to 
start that very night ; if that had been done they might 



RUIN OF THE EXPEDITION, B.C. 413 203 

have escaped, for the Syracusans were celebrating their 
victory with feasting and merriment and were not think- 
ing of preventing the retreat of the defeated enemy. But 
Hermocrates, knowing that Nicias had friends in Syracuse 
who often gave him intelligence, sent some men out who 
shouted to the Athenians that they had better not start 
that night, as the Syracusans had occupied all the roads. 
The trick deceived Nicias, and the retreat was postponed for 
two "days ; but meanwhile the Syracusans had seized all the 
important points by which the Athenians might retreat, and 
their cavalry were everywhere. At last the retreat began. 
Including camp-followers, forty thousand men started, in 
two divisions, the front one under Nicias, the rear under 
Demosthenes. All the sick and wounded who were 
unable to travel were left behind, and the scene of parting 
was heartrending. 

The first day they forced their passage over a ford of the 
Anapus, and inarched about five miles inland harassed by the 
Syracusan cavalry and light troops. At daybreak they 
started again, but the Syracusans now knew their line of 
retreat, and occupied a strong position on the road by 
which they must pass. For two whole days the Athenians 
remain before this position, unable to force it ; the third 
night they started again, back towards the coast, so as 
to find some other road into the interior. At daybreak 
the Syracusans discovered that the Athenians had slipped 
away ; their cavalry started in hot pursuit, and caught up 
the division of Demosthenes, which for some reason had 
fallen six miles behind that of Nicias. Assailed on all 
sides, and at last driven into a walled enclosure from which 
escape was debarred, this division, now reduced to six 
thousand men, surrendered to Gylippus in the evening, 
on condition that their lives were spared. 

The next day Gylippus came up with Nicias, and inform- 
ing him of the fate of Demosthenes, summoned him to 



204 HISTORY OF GREECE 

surrender. But terms could not be agreed on, and Nicias 
pursued his march amid the usual attacks of cavalry. He 
attempted to escape from them by another night march, 
but this time the Syracusans discovered it. The hopeless 
retreat was continued the next day ; and the division came 
to a river called Asinarus, the opposite bank of which was 
steep and occupied by the enemy ; the Athenians utterly 
exhausted and overcome by a raging thirst rushed down 
into the water, trampling over one another in their 
eagerness to drink, while the Syracusans on the bank 
rained down their missiles upon the helpless struggling 
mass. Nicias, seeing further resistance was hopeless, 
surrendered to Gylippus, who as soon as possible put 
an end to the useless slaughter ; thus six days after 
the disastrous retreat began, the last miserable remnant 
of the force fell into the hands of the enemy. 

Thus the great Athenian expedition to Sicily, which had 
started with such high hopes, ended in utter ruin, and the 
forebodings of Nicias were justified. But it was Nicias 
himself who was the cause of the ruin. A man of blame- 
less character, but of moderate ability and incapacitated by 
illness, he was unfit for the sole command of so important 
a campaign, in which he was left by the unfortunate recall 
of Alcibiades and death of Lamachus ; his weakness and 
indecision ruined the splendid force intrusted him, and 
involved Athens's best general, Demosthenes, in the same 
fate. 

Gylippus wished to take back Nicias and Demosthenes 
as prisoners to Sparta, but by a decree of the Syracusan 
assembly they were put to death, though, according to one 
account, he contrived to furnish them with the means of 
putting an end to their own lives. 

A few, very few, of the Athenians escaped on the march, 
and reached Catana ; others were seized and sold as slaves 
throughout Sicily, many of whom from time to time 



RUIN OF THE EXPEDITION, B.C. 413 205 

escaped and made their way back to Athens. But the 
great bulk of the prisoners, seven thousand in number, was 
placed in the stone quarries of Syracuse, whither the 
Syracusans used to come to gaze at them in triumph. 
Miserably fed, exposed to the heat of the sun by day and 
cold by night, with the air poisoned by the bodies of those 
who perished, they suffered untold torments. Their 
ultimate fate is uncertain. The Syracusans celebrated 
their triumph by an annual festival called Asinaria, from 
the name of the river where the last surrender took place. 

Their saviour Gylippus returned to Sparta, but, strange 
to say, was never given another command against the 
Athenians. After the fall of Athens he was convicted of 
stealing some of the captured treasure which he was con- 
veying to Sparta, and went into exile — a sad end for one of 
the ablest Spartans. 



CHAPTEE XXV 

RENEWAL OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR : 
THE FOUR HUNDRED AT ATHENS 

Dates. B.C. 

The Spartans seize Decelea, 413 

Revolt of Chios : alliance between the Spartans 

and Tissaphernes, 412 

Revolution of the Four Hundred at Athens, . 411 

Chief Names.— Astyochus, Tissaphernes, Alcibiades, Peisander, 
Theramenes, Thrasybulus. 

In the spring of B.C. 413 the war began again in Greece, 
eight years after the conclusion of the peace of Nicias. The 
Spartans, according to the advice of Alcibiades, seized the 
hill of Decelea and fortified it ; they held it during the 
rest of the war, for which reason these years are often 
called the Decelean War. The occupation of this post 
caused great annoyance to Athens ; it cut off the direct 
road to Euboea ; slaves deserted to it in great numbers, and 
the most fertile part of the country was always exposed to 
its ravages. 

In the summer a despatch had reached Athens announc- 
ing the defeat of the night attack on Epipola? ; after 
that came no more news, till one day in the autumn, 
a barber of the Peiraeus came up to the city and announced 
that he had heard from a stranger of the total destruction 

206 



RENEWAL OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 207 

of the armament. His story was disbelieved and he was 
put to the torture, but gradually fugitives from Sicily 
began to arrive and the terrible news was confirmed. 

After an outburst of rage against the politicians and 
soothsayers, who had urged the fatal expedition, the 
Athenians turned their thoughts to the future, and began 
to consider measures of defence. They had lost a hundred 
and fifty triremes, and all their best sailors in Sicily ; and 
the Spartans would now try to make their subjects in the 
Delian Confederacy revolt (see p. 195), and so gain 
command of the sea. If they did so, Athens must be 
starved into surrender. Thus the character of the war now 
changed ; it was fought at sea in the Hellespont, and on the 
Asiatic coast ; the Athenians were now fighting for their 
very existence, and made no more expeditions against the 
Peloponnese as at the beginning of the war. Her enemies 
thought that her last hour had now come, but in spite of her 
present weakness, and in spite of the garrison of Decelea 
which kept Athens almost in the condition of a besieged 
city, the Athenians had still plenty of resistance in them, 
and the end only came at last through treachery. 

During the winter envoys came to Sparta from Euboea, 
Chios, the only state of the Confederacy of Delos still free, 
and Lesbos asking for aid to revolt. Tissaphernes, the 
satrap of Lydia, and Pharnabazus, the satrap of the Helles- 
pont, also sent envoys offering their aid in money t in over- 
throwing their hated enemy, Athens, and this aid the 
Spartans were not ashamed to accept. 

Accordingly, in the spring of B.C. 412, the Spartans 
despatched a squadron of twenty-five ships to Chios ; but 
the Athenians were aware of their proceedings, and sent 
thirty-seven ships after the Peloponnesian squadron, which 
drove it ashore and blockaded it. The Spartans were much 
discouraged at this unexpected display of strength by 
Athens ; but Alcibiades prevailed on them to send out 



208 HISTORY OF GREECE 

the Admiral Chalcideus, accompanied by himself, with a 
squadron of five ships, which succeeded in evading the 
Athenians. 

Only the oligarchical party at Chios was desirous of 
revolting ; the government which was democratic was 
loyal to Athens, who had given them fifty years' peace and 
prosperity ; but the arrival of the Peloponnesian triremes 
turned the scale and Chios revolted. Its revolt was fol- 
lowed by that of Miletus and a few other towns. Chal- 
cideus now made a treaty of alliance with Tissaphernes, 
acknowledging the right of the king of Persia to all the 
Greek territory which his predecessors had ever possessed. 
Tissaphernes in return promised to provide pay for the 
Peloponnesian sailors. The news of the revolt of Chios, 
though expected, caused great excitement at Athens. It 
was at once resolved to use the reserve fund of a thousand 
talents (see p. 165); and incredible exertions were made to 
equip a fleet as soon as possible. 

At the same time a revolution took place at Samos, 
where the people suddenly rose and drove out the oligar- 
chical government, which apparently had been left in power 
by the Athenians after the revolt of Samos, thirty years 
before (see p. 156) ; the new democratic government [de- 
clared its loyalty to Athens, and the Athenians in gratitude 
made Samos a free and equal ally instead of their subject. 
Samos became the headquarters of the Athenian fleet 
throughout the war. 

The Chians next persuaded the Lesbians to revolt, un- 
deterred by their terrible punishment on the previous occa- 
sion ; but an Athenian squadron of twenty-five ships from 
Samos surprised Mitylene, and reconquered the island. The 
Athenians then proceeded against Chios ; they defeated the 
Chians and ravaged their country, and soon reduced them to 
great straits. In the course of the summer the Athenians 
had greatly increased the number of their ships, and sent a 



RENEWAL OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 209 

fleet of forty- eight, with three thousand five hundred 
hoplites, against Miletus. A battle took place on land in 
which the Ionians in each army were successful, for the 
Athenians beat the Peloponnesian troops at Miletus, and the 
Milesians beat the Argive allies of Athens ; but the final 
victory remained with the Athenians, and Chalcideus was 
slain. By this time, however, the Spartans had equipped a 
fleet, and fifty-five ships under Astyochus, including twenty 
Syracusan under Hermocrates, came to the relief of 
Miletus. 

Some of the Athenian generals wanted to fight, but one 
of them, Phrynichus, dissuaded them, pointing out that the 
risk was too great in the present weak state of Athens. So 
the Athenians returned to Samos, and the Peloponnesians 
remained at Miletus. In place of the disgraceful treaty 
concluded by Chalcideus, Astyochus now made a new one 
in which nothing was said about the rights of the king of 
Persia to any Greek territory. 

Astyochus made no attack on the Athenians at Samos, 
and allowed them to continue their devastation of Chios. 
Thus the year was passing away without any great success 
on either side ; this was equivalent to a defeat to the 
Spartans, who had expected that Athens would at once 
succumb ; and they vented their rage on Alcibiades, whom 
they considered responsible for the failure. Alcibiades had 
many private enemies at Sparta who encouraged the feeling 
against him, and a despatch was sent to Astyochus direct- 
ing that he should be put to death. But Alcibiades being 
forewarned fled to Tissaphernes. His object now was to 
pave the way for his return to Athens by pretending to 
gain Tissaphernes over to the Athenians. He obtained 
considerable influence over Tissaphernes, and pointed out to 
him that it was to the interest of Persia that the Pelopon- 
nesians should not be too successful, but that both sides, 
Peloponnesians and Athenians, should wear themselves out, 





210 HISTORY OF GREECE 

and then both would be an easy prey to the Persians. Acting 
on this advice, Tissaphernes kept the Peloponnesian fleet 
inactive by lessening the pay of the men by a half, and pro- 
mising that he would shortly bring up a Phoenician fleet, 
which would enable them to finish the war at one blow. 
The objections of Astyochus and the other officers were 
silenced by bribes ; Hermocrates the Syracusan alone refused 
to accept one. 

About this time the Spartans, dissatisfied with Astyochus, 
sent commissioners to the fleet, who attempted to obtain 
from Tissaphernes a better treaty than the one signed by 
Astyochus ; but the terms could not be agreed on, and 
Tissaphernes broke with the Spartans altogether and gave 
them no money at all. Astyochus, however, obtained 
money for the present from the large island of Ehodes, 
where, as at Chios, the Peloponnesian fleet, invited by the 
oligarchs, frightened the people into revolt. Rhodes now 
became the station of the Peloponnesian fleet. 

Alcibiades felt that the time was now ripe for him to 
carry out his project of procuring his return to Athens. 
He entered into communication with the wealthy men in the 
Athenian fleet at Samos, who at heart were oligarchs, and 
declared that, if recalled from exile, he could bring Tissa- 
phernes over to the side of Athens ; but first it would be 
necessary to bring about a revolution at Athens and set up 
an oligarchy, since Tissaphernes would not treat with the 
democracy. The oligarchs eagerly entered into his plans, 
with the exception of the general Phrynichus, who, though 
an oligarch, distrusted Alcibiades. With great difficulty they 
won over the mass of soldiers to their side by pointing out 
that the only chance of carrying on the war lay in obtaining 
Persian gold ; and then despatched one of their number 
named Peisander to Athens. Peisander on his arrival at 
Athens set in motion the l clubs,' secret societies of rich 
men, which were always hostile to the democracy, but had 



RENEWAL OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 211 

been reduced to impotence since Pericles came into power. 
A meeting of the Ecclesia was held, and after much 
opposition it was decided to send Peisander with ten col- 
leagues to treat with Tissaphernes and Alcibiades ; for 
Peisander declared that there was no other chance of resist- 
ing the Spartans. 

But when Peisander and his colleagues reached Asia, 
Alcibiades, rinding that he could not bring Tissaphernes 
really over to the side of the Athenians, made most ex- 
travagant demands in his name, which he knew they could 
not accept. The negotiations were broken off, and Tissa- 
phernes again espoused the cause of the Spartans. 

Peisander was furious at being thus duped by Alcibiades, 
but he was too far committed to the oligarchical conspiracy 
to draw back. On his return to Athens he found that the 
clubs had brought about a veritable reign of terror by 
secretly causing the assassination of many of the leading 
democrats ; and that Phrynichus, who had been deposed 
from his command, had joined the conspiracy now that 
Alcibiades was not to be recalled. He accordingly assembled 
the Ecclesia at a temple a mile outside the city, where it 
was at the mercy of the conspirators, and forced it to vote 
the overthrow of the democracy and the establishment of 
an oligarchical Council of Four Hundred, who were to draw 
up a list of five thousand out of the citizens (about twenty 
thousand) to form the Ecclesia. Thus democracy for a time 
came to an end at Athens, b.c. 411, and the Four Hundred 
ruled supreme, for the list of the Five Thousand never 
appeared. 

The first acts of the Four Hundred were to make over- 
tures of peace to Agis at Decelea, and send envoys to the 
fleet at Samos announcing the change of constitution, but 
explaining that the Five Thousand would soon be sum- 
moned. Agis treated them with contempt, and marched 
against Athens, thinking in the present state of affairs it 



212 HISTORY OF GREECE 

would be open to attack ; but, being repulsed with loss, he 
allowed ambassadors to be sent to Sparta. 

Meanwhile an attempt had been made by the Saurian 
oligarchs, aided by the oligarchs in the Athenian fleet, to 
overthrow their own democracy ; but the rest of the 
Athenians took the part of the democrats, and defeated the 
oligarchs. Ignorant of the events at Athens, they despatched 
the government trireme Paralus thither with an envoy to bear 
the news. The Four Hundred seized it with its crew ; but 
the envoy escaped, and brought back to Samos such a tale of 
the tyranny of the Four Hundred that the Athenian soldiers 
and sailors met together in a solemn assembly, declared 
that they and not Athens were now the true Athenian 
democracy ; they expressed their determination to wage 
war on the Peloponnesians, and to have no dealings with 
the Four Hundred, and elected new generals, the chief of 
whom were Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus. 

The envoys of the Four Hundred therefore met with a 
bad reception at Samos ; the message they brought back was 
that the army had no objection to the Five Thousand, but 
that the Four Hundred must resign. The ambassadors to 
Sparta were still more unfortunate, for they were seized by 
the crew of the trireme conveying them, and handed over 
to the custody of Argos. Dissension also arose in their 
own ranks ; the more moderate of them, headed by 
Theramenes, one of the leaders of the clubs, demanded 
that a list of the Five Thousand should be made out, 
so that they might be summoned to meet in the Ecclesia. 
Phrynichus and Antiphon were now in great straits ; they 
went themselves with ten colleagues as ambassadors to 
Sparta ; but the Spartans would not make terms, apparently 
distrusting their position. Then they began to build a fort 
on the Mole at the mouth of the harbour of the Pemeus, as 
a defence they said against an attack from Samos ; but 
Theramenes said it was to introduce the Spartans into the 



RENEWAL OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 213 

harbour. A Peloponnesian fleet was at this time fitting out 
for an expedition to Eubcea, which was preparing to revolt 
from Athens ; and Theramenes declared it was intended 
against the Peireeus. There was great excitement at Athens ; 
and Phrynichus, on his return from Sparta, was murdered 
in the market-place in broad daylight, and his assassin was 
never discovered ; then the soldiers engaged on building 
the fort mutinied, and destroyed it. The Four Hundred 
were now thoroughly frightened, and offered to draw up the 
list of the Five Thousand ; but before the terms were 
arranged, the Peloponnesian squadron, forty-two ships 
strong, was sighted off the island of Salamis. Thinking 
that they were making for the Peirseus, the whole available 
population rushed down to the harbour, and manned all 
the ships there. But the Peloponnesians, whatever their 
intentions really were, passed the Peirseus, and sailed round 
Cape Sunium towards Eubcea. The Athenians followed, 
joined the squadron stationed in the strait, which brought 
their numbers up to thirty-six, and then eugaged the 
enemy : as might have been expected, they were totally 
defeated, losing twenty-two ships, and Eubcea revolted to 
Sparta. 

The loss of Eubcea was a great blow to Athens. The loss 
of the ships was still greater, for the Peiraeus was now 
defenceless ; but for some reason the Peloponnesian admiral 
preferred to sail across the iEgean, and reinforce the main 
fleet under Astyochus. The danger of the State put an end 
to the party dissensions ; the Four Hundred had lost all 
their authority, and an assembly held in the old meeting- 
place voted to depose the Four Hundred and put the 
government in the hands of the Five Thousand ; but as the 
Five Thousand were to consist of every one who possessed 
arms, it does not seem to have been limited to that number : 
in fact within a short time the original democracy was 
restored. Peisander and some other leaders of the Four 



214 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Hundred took refuge with the garrison of Decelea. The 
only two survivors of the ambassadors to Sparta were 
tried and executed as traitors. Theramenes had saved 
himself by changing sides at the right moment. No other 
executions seem to have taken place, so that the Athenians 
acted with great moderation compared with other states, 
such as Corcyra. The usurpation of the Four Hundred 
lasted about four months, from March to June, B.C. 411 ; 
it was brought about by the selfish intriguing of Alcibiades, 
and might have proved the destruction of Athens if her 
enemies had been more enterprising. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

the peloponnesian war {continued) 

NAVAL VICTORIES OF ATHENS 

Dates. b.c. 

Revolt of Byzantium. Battle of Cynossema, . 411 

Battle of Cyzicus, 410 

Pylus retaken by Sparta, 409 

Byzantium retaken by Alcibiades. He returns to 

Athens, 408 

Chief Names, — Mindarus, Thrasybulus, Pharnabazus, Alcibiades. 

During these events at Athens, Alcibiades himself had 
been recalled from exile by the army at Samos by the 
advice of the new generals Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus, 
for he seemed the only man who could save Athens, and 
had been elected by the army one of the generals ; he now 
again promised to bring Tissaphernes over to the Athenian 
side. 

In spite of the disunited state of the Athenians, Astyochus 
had been doing nothing. His inactivity caused the greatest 
indignation in the Peloponnesian fleet, and the men held a 
meeting in which they roundly abused him and Tissaphernes. 
He therefore sailed out against the Athenian fleet ; but 
the Athenians, having only 82 ships against 112, declined 
battle. Then the Athenians, being reinforced, sailed 
against Miletus ; but Astyochus in his turn declined battle. 
At length invitations came to the Peloponnesians from 

215 



2l6 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



Pharnabazus, the Satrap of the Hellespont, and from Byzan- 
tium, which was anxious to revolt from Athens. A squadron 





THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE 
HELLESPONT 

was sent thither, of which ten ships 
only arrived, the rest being driven 
back by a storm; but they were 
sufficient to effect the revolt of By- 
zantium and Chalcedon, — a great 
blow to Athens, as they commanded 
the west and east shores of the Bosphorus, through which the 
corn-ships from the Euxine came to Athens. Astyochus now 
was succeeded as admiral by Mindarus, a man of much 
greater energy, who, weary of Tissaphernes's duplicity, 
sailed off with the fleet to the Hellespont in order to 
cut off the corn supplies of the Athenians, and at the same 
time hoping to find Pharnabazus a more trustworthy ally. 

Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus, aware of the importance 
of the Hellespont, immediately followed, and attacked 
Mindarus between Sestus and Abydus near a promontory 
named Cynossema (Kwbs 2^a, the Dog's Tomb). The 
Athenian fleet, numbering seventy-six ships, was sailing 
along the north coast of the Hellespont in a single line 
towards Sestus, and the Peloponnesian eighty-six ships 
were also in a sinde line along the south coast. Mindarus 



THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR— CONTINUED 217 

was victorious in the centre ; but the two Athenian wings, 
under Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus respectively, were vic- 
torious on their side ; and eventually the Peloponnesians 
were driven back to Abydus with the loss of twenty ships. 
This was not a very great victory, but it was the first 
pitched battle won over the Peloponnesians since the 
renewal of the war, and caused great exultation at Athens. 
The Athenians now began to hope for a successful end of 
the war. 

In spite of his defeat at Cynossema, Mindarus's change of 
the scene of operations from the satrapy of Tissaphernes to 
that of Pharnabazus proved a great success : Chios was 
relieved from the Athenian attacks ; Pharnabazus proved 
a firm ally : he regularly supplied the pay for the men, and 
brought a considerable land force to the aid of the fleet. 
The Athenians, on the other hand, suffered greatly from 
want of money, and often had to break up their fleet in 
order to make collections from the islands, which seriously 
interfered with their operations. However, their good fortune 
at sea still continued; in the autumn of B.C. 411 they won 
a second victory over Mindarus at Abydus, capturing 
thirty ships, owing to the sudden arrival of Alcibiades from 
Samos in the middle of the battle with a squadron of 
eighteen ships. After this victory Alcibiades paid a visit 
to Tissaphernes, who had come to the Hellespont, and the 
Satrap, wishing to show his friendliness to the Pelopon- 
nesians, seized him and sent him prisoner to Sardis ; he soon 
however escaped and rejoined the fleet ; but he could no 
longer pretend that he could bring Tissaphernes over to the 
Athenian side. 

The winter was spent by the Athenians in collecting 
money, and by Mindarus in repairing his losses. In the 
spring of B.C. 410, he set sail with about sixty ships and 
besieged the town of Cyzicus, on the south shore of the 
Propontis (Sea of Marmora), Pharnabazus co-operating with 



218 HISTORY OF GREECE 

his land-force. Alcibiades and Thrasybulus having got the 
Athenian fleet together again to the number of over eighty 
ships, surprised Mindarus on a misty day, cut his fleet off 
from the harbour and drove it ashore : Alcibiades then 
landed and defeated the land force of Pharnabazus and the 
Spartans combined. Mindarus was killed, and his whole 
fleet captured or sunk, except the Syracusan ships which 
Hermocrates caused to be burnt by their crews. Mindarus 
was a vigorous though unfortunate commander, and his loss 
was a great blow to the Spartans. 

This splendid success of Alcibiades to some degree 
counterbalanced the injuries inflicted on Athens by him. 
The Athenian fleet had now again complete command of the 
sea, and had cleared the Hellespont of the Spartans. The 
condition of the latter may be judged from a despatch 
from Mindarus's successor which was intercepted by the 
Athenians : ' All is lost : Mindarus is slain : the men are 
starving : we know not what to do. ; Pharnabazus came to 
the rescue with food and clothing ; and also provided wood 
for new triremes, but it was more than a year before a 
fleet could be built. 

The Spartans were so discouraged by this defeat that 
they sent the Ephor Endius with overtures for peace : the 
terms were that Decelea should be exchanged for Pylus, and 
the revolted cities should keep their freedom. But the 
Athenians refused to consent to such a peace ; they would 
not give up Chios and Miletus, and probably they did not 
trust the sincerity of the Spartans. The first object of the 
Athenian generals was to recover the Bosphorus so as to 
secure a free passage for the corn-ships. They attacked 
Chalcedon first, which, assisted by Pharnabazus, proved too 
strong for them. However, they seized its port and fortified 
it, and thus obtained some command over the Bosphorus 
and were able to levy toll on ships passing through, as they 
had done from Byzantium before its revolt. The Spartan 



THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR— CONTINUED 219 

king Agis, from his lofty post at Decelea now again beheld 
the corn-ships sailing into the Peirseus, and felt how useless 
it was for him to blockade the city as long as the corn was 
allowed to come in by sea. 

The following year (b.c. 409) Alcibiades spent chiefly in 
raiding attacks on Pharnabazus. Thrasyllus was sent with 
fifty ships and a force of hoplites to the iEgean ; but he 
only won over one unimportant town ; he did not venture 
to attack Chios or Miletus, and near Ephesus he was badly 
beaten on land by Tissaphernes, after which he rejoined 
Alcibiades. This summer the Spartans attacked and 
captured Pylus, and so at last rid themselves of that thorn 
in their side. The Athenians sent a squadron of thirty 
ships to its relief, but the commander returned without 
even reaching it, owing to the stormy weather about Cape 
Malea. 

Next year (b.c. 408) the Spartans still had no fleet ready. 
Alcibiades and the other generals now pressed the siege of 
Chalcedon, and completely blockaded the town. Pharna- 
bazus attempted to relieve it but was repulsed. Utterly 
wearied out by the apparent fruitlessness of all his attempts 
to crush the Athenians, he now agreed to the capitulation of 
Chalcedon on favourable terms, and promised to escort some 
Athenian ambassadors to Susa to make peace with the king 
of Persia. The Athenians then attacked Byzantium : it 
was defended by a Spartan governor with troops from 
Greece ; but after many months 5 blockade famine did its 
work, and the inhabitants, during the temporary absence 
of the governor, opened the gates to Alcibiades at the end 
of the autumn. 

Having thus completely restored the Athenian supremacy 
on the Hellespont and Bosphorus and secured the corn 
supply, Alcibiades returned to Athens at the end of b.c. 408, 
after eight years' absence. His brilliant services during 
the last three years had caused his former misdeeds to be 



220 HISTORY OF GREECE 

forgotten : and though he is said to have been somewhat 
apprehensive of his welcome, and to have landed amid an 
escort of his personal friends, he was enthusiastically 
received, and his sentence of condemnation revoked. Such 
great expectations did the people feel of what he could 
accomplish that they made him sole commander of a fleet 
of a hundred triremes and fifteen hundred hoplites. 

His first action was intended to impress the Athenians 
at home with a sense of his power. Owing to the Spartan 
occupation of Decelea, the annual procession to Eleusis to 
celebrate the Mysteries (see page 20), had been obliged to 
go by sea. Alcibiades now employed his force to escort it 
by land in accordance with the ancient custom, and the 
Spartans did not venture to molest it. 

He then, in the spring of b.c. 407, sailed for the iEgean ; 
but on his arrival he found that a great change had come 
over the state of affairs. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE FALL OF ATHENS. — END OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 

Dates. b. c. 

Battle of Notium, 407 

Battle of Arginusae, 406 

Battle of ^Egospotami, 405 

Surrender of Athens, . . . . . 404 

Chief Names. — Cyrus, Lysander, Conon, Callicratidas, 
Thrasybulus, Theramenes. 

The Athenian ambassadors when journeying with Phar- 
nabazus to Susa in hopes of obtaining the aid of the 
king of Persia, fell in with his younger son Cyrus coming 
down to the coast to supersede Tissaphernes as Satrap of 
Lydia. Cyrus was a young man of eighteen, but brave, 
able, and ambitious ; he was the favourite son of the Queen 
Parysatis, and regarded himself as his father's successor. 
His one object was to help the Peloponnesians by money 
and every means to crush Athens, and he at once ordered 
Pharnabazus to stop the Athenian ambassadors, and Pharna- 
bazus was compelled to obey. At Sardis Cyrus had an 
interview with the new Spartan admiral, Lysander, and 
promised him that he would aid him to the utmost : the 
scene of the war was now transferred from the Hellespont 
to Cyrus's Satrapy, and Ephesus became the headquarters 
of the Spartans. Lysander was an able man who had won 
his way by his own ability from a humble position ; but 
he was a selfish man, influenced more by personal ambition 
than duty to Sparta or Greece. He soon won the friend- 
ship of Cyrus, and thus made doubly sure of his firm 

221 



222 HISTORY OF GREECE 

support. A new Peloponnesian fleet had by this time 
been built, and when Alcibiades reached Samos he found 
Lysander with ninety ships at Ephesus, with his men in 
receipt of regular pay, while the Athenians, disappointed of 
the expected aid from Persia, were as badly off for money 
as ever. Alcibiades tried to negotiate with Cyrus through 
Tissaphernes ; but Cyrus, fortified by his friendship for 
Lysander, rejected his advances. 

Lysander, well aware of the difficulties of the Athenians, 
would not come out and fight ; so at last Alcibiades sailed 
off with a squadron to collect money, leaving his fleet in 
command of a favourite companion, Antiochus, who was pilot 
of his ship, but with strict orders not to fight. Antiochus 
however sailed out of Notium with two ships to Ephesus, and 
challenged Lysander to come out and fight : Lysander came 
out and drove him back ; the Athenian fleet came out in 
disorder to his rescue and was defeated with the loss of fifteen 
ships, Antiochus himself being slain. Alcibiades soon 
returned from his cruise, in the course of which he had 
plundered the territory of an allied town, Cyme : furious at 
the defeat of the fleet he tried again to bring Lysander to 
battle, but the latter would not give him a chance of re- 
trieving his fortunes. There was great indignation in the 
fleet against Alcibiades for leaving Antiochus in command : 
complaints also reached Athens from Cyme, and the 
Athenians, disappointed at the ill success of the year, super- 
seded Alcibiades, who went off to the Thracian Chersonese 
where he possessed a private estate and a fort. 

His. successor, Conon, found himself in such want of 
money that he was obliged to reduce the number of the 
fleet from a hundred to seventy ships, and to scatter even 
these on plundering expeditions. 

When Lysander's year of command expired he was suc- 
ceeded by Callicratidas, an able and brave soldier, and a 
man of high and generous character. Lysander seems to 



THE FALL OF ATHENS 223 

have hoped that he might be continued in his command ; 
and to spite his successor he paid back to Cyrus what was 
over of the money supplied by him. Callicratidas therefore 
on his arrival found the pay-chest empty, and the officers of 
the fleet who had been won over by Lysander bitterly 
opposed to him. He went up to Sardis to see Cyrus, who 
kept him waiting so long for an audience that he returned 
in disgust, resolved, if he survived the campaign, to reconcile 
Sparta and Athens, in order that Greeks might not be obliged 
to pay court to barbarians. He obtained some money with 
difficulty from Miletus and Chios and put to sea. The 
Peloponnesian fleet had been largely increased since the last 
year, and now numbered about a hundred and fifty ships. 

With this overwhelming fleet he attacked Methymna, a 
town in Lesbos (b.c. 406). Conon hastened to relieve the 
town, but he found it already taken ; he attempted to 
retreat to Samos, but Callicratidas cut him off, drove him 
into the harbour of Mitylene, capturing thirty of his ships, 
and blockaded him there by land and sea. Conon contrived 
to despatch a trireme through the blockading force to 
Athens with the news. The Athenians immediately pre- 
pared for sea every single trireme in the docks of the 
Peiraeus, a hundred and ten in number ; to furnish crews, 
even slaves were induced to serve by the promise of freedom, 
and the knights went on board as marines. In a month the 
fleet sailed ; at Samos it was raised to a hundred and fifty 
by reinforcements from the allies. 

Callicratidas, leaving fifty ships to blockade Conon, sailed 
with a hundred and twenty ships against the Athenians, 
and met them at the islands of Arginusse, south of Lesbos. 
The Athenian fleet, being composed of inferior ships and 
manned by raw crews, was drawn up mostly in two lines, 
but the Peloponnesian fleet was in a single line, a striking 
change since the days of Phormio (see page 168). After a 
long desperate action, in the course of which "Callicratidas fell 



224 HISTOR Y OF GREECE 

overboard from the prow of his trireme owing to the shock 
of collision and was drowned, the Peloponnesians were 
defeated with the loss of seventy ships. The Athenians 
lost twenty-five ships ; and owing to a storm coming on, the 
crews were not rescued from the disabled wrecks, nor were 
the corpses of those slain in the battle taken up for burial, 
though to be left unburied was regarded as the worst fate that 
could befall a man. The Peloponnesian squadron blockading 
Conon, by pretending that Callicratidas had been victorious, 
escaped from Mitylene without being attacked, and joined 
the defeated fleet at Chios. 

The Athenian fleet having relieved Mitylene returned to 
Samos ; but here the generals who commanded at Arginusa3 
received the news that they were superseded and ordered 
home ; for the Athenians, in the midst of their joy at a 
victory which had saved their -state from certain ruin, were 
full of indignation at their neglect to save the drowning 
crews, whose relations called loudly for vengeance. Six out 
of the ten generals, including Thrasyllus and a son of 
Pericles, were put on trial before the Ecclesia ; one had 
died since the battle, two others had fled into voluntary 
exile, the tenth, Conon, had not been at the battle. The 
accusers were Theranienes and Thrasybulus, who had served 
in the battle in command of triremes. The defence of the 
generals was that they had given the order to Theranienes 
and Thrasybulus themselves ; they, however, denied it ; and 
it is impossible now to say on which side was the truth. 
At length it was proposed by a citizen named Callixenus 
that the Ecclesia should decide the guilt or innocence of 
all six generals by a single vote ; this would be illegal, as 
according to law each person must be tried separately. 
Amid much protest and excitement the motion was carried ; 
the six generals were voted guilty, and all put to death. 
When they had time for cool reflection the Athenians were 
bitterly ashamed of their action ; Callixenus was impeached 



THE FALL OF ATHENS 225 

for his unconstitutional proposal (see ypcKprj irapavoiuov, p. 
140), but he escaped from Athens before his trial, and in 
the end perished miserably, loathed by all his fellow- 
citizens. 

Owing to the ill success of the fleet since the departure 
of Lysander, the Chians and Milesians, as well as Cyrus 
himself, sent envoys to Sparta requesting that he might be 
sent back ; whereupon the Spartans sent him nominally as 
secretary to the new admiral, but really with supreme com- 
mand. Lysander arrived at Miletus at the beginning of B.C. 
405 ; he at once obtained fresh supplies of money from Cyrus, 
who being summoned to Susa to see his father, who was on 
the point of death, actually left the management of his 
satrapy to Lysander. He at once set about building fresh 
triremes, while the Athenian fleet, a hundred and eighty 
strong, under Conon and five other commanders, was occu- 
pied, as usual, in collecting money. At length, after various 
operations, Lysander, like Mindarus, sailed to the Hellespont 
and attacked and took the town of Lampsacus, on the 
southern shore of the strait. Collecting all their ships the 
Athenians followed, and took up their station in September 
on an open beach at the mouth of a river named 
.ffigospot&mi (Goat's Streams) opposite Lampsacus, and 
two miles from Sestus, whence their provisions came. 
For four days they tried to bring Lysander to battle, 
but he refused to leave his safe position; and each 
day on their return they grew more and more careless 
— the men, except those under Conon, being allowed 
to roam away from the fleet to procure food. Alcibiades, 
from his estate in the neighbourhood, saw what was going 
on ; he came to the camp and warned the generals of their 
dangerous position, and advised them to move to Sestus. 
But his warning was received with contempt ; for it is pro- 
bable that the report current after the battle was true, and 
that some of the generals were bribed by Lysander. On 

P 



226 HISTOR Y OF GREECE 

the fifth day Lysander, on receiving a signal that the 
Athenians had as usual disembarked after coming out to 
offer him battle, suddenly rowed across. Conon at once 
ordered the fleet to be manned for battle, but it was too 
late ; hardly a ship except Conon's own squadron was ready. 
Conon rowed across and carried off Lysander's sails from his 
camp, so that he could not follow him, and then fled with 
twelve ships ; the rest, a hundred and seventy, fell into the 
hands of Lysander almost without a blow being struck. 
Many of the crews not being on board escaped, but four 
thousand prisoners were captured and put to death, 
including some of the generals. 

Conon, not daring to return home after such a disaster, 
fled to Cyprus ; but he sent the government trireme 
Paralus to Athens with the fatal news. When it arrived, a 
long wail went up from the Peirseus to the city ; on that 
night not a man slept. Next day it was resolved to put the 
city in a state of defence ; but all resistance was really hope- 
less, for no more food could now come in by sea, and there 
were no more ships to make a new fleet. It was in vain 
that at Cyzicus and Arginusae they had destroyed the fleets 
of their enemies ; Persian gold had supplied new ones ; but 
when once her own fleet was destroyed Athens w^as helpless. 

But as yet Lysander came not. He was engaged in 
securing his conquest in the Hellespont and iEgean. Every 
town that he came to 'opened its gates except Samos ; and 
in every town he set up an oligarchy of ten under a Spartan 
governor or Harmost ; wherever he found Athenian settlers 
he sent them to Athens to increase the numbers to be fed 
there. In November Lysander at last appeared off the 
Pemeus, while Agis, with the army from Decelea, reinforced 
by the full force of the Peloponnesians, encamped before the 
walls of the city, and the Siege of Athens began. By the 
end of the year famine had begun to do its w r ork, and 
ambassadors w^ere sent to Agis offering peace ; they 



THE FALL OF ATHENS 227 

proposed that Athens should give up all her possessions and 
become the ally of Sparta, but retain her Long Walls. Agis 
sent the ambassadors to Sparta, but the Ephors dismissed 
them contemptuously. The question of the Long Walls 
was the one obstacle to peace, and the Athenians passed a 
vote forbidding any one to propose their destruction. But 
the famine was increasing, and at length Theramenes per- 
suaded the Ecclesia to send him to Lysander ; he remained 
with him no less than three months, and on his return 
declared that he had been detained by Lysander, and that 
ambassadors must be sent to Sparta. He was sent with 
nine colleagues ; and Sparta held a congress of the allies to 
decide on the fate of Athens. The Thebans and Corinthians 
wished her to be utterly destroyed ; but the Spartans said 
they would never consent to the destruction of a city that 
had done such services to Greece at the time of the Persian 
wars. Probably the Spartans were afraid that the destruction 
of Athens would make Thebes and Corinth too strong. The 
terms that Theramenes brought back were that Athens must 
give up her possessions and all her ships but twelve, recall her 
exiles, and become the ally of Sparta, and that the Long Walls 
and the fortifications of the Peirseus should be destroyed. 
The famine and the distress in the city were now so terrible 
that the conditions were accepted ; for it was a relief to the 
Athenians to learn that slavery was not. to be their fate. 

In March B.C. 404, twenty-seven years after the beginning 
of the Peloponnesian war, Lysander entered the Peiraeus ; he 
carried off the few ships found there, except twelve, and 
destroyed the arsenals and ships in course of construction. 
Then the work of demolishing the Long Walls began, to the 
accompaniment of flute -playing and dancing, in honour 
of the commencement of freedom, as it was thought, in 
Greece. 

Such was the end of the Peloponnesian war and the 
attempt of- Athens to found an empire. She failed, and 



228 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



must have failed owing to the determined opposition of 
Sj)arta and the other powerful states ; but her defeat in 
this war was brought about by one single mistake, the 
expedition against Syracuse. 

The ' tyranny ; of Athens being overthrown, it remains to 
be seen what ' freedom J under Sparta was like. 

Dates. 

Peloponnesian War. 





B.C. 




Outbreak of the War, . 


431 > 




Plague at Athens, 


430 




Siege of Plateea, . 

Naval victories of Phormio, 


429-427 
429 




Revolt of Lesbos, 


428 


First Period : 


The Athenians seize Pylus, . 


425 


> fought in Greece. 


Battle of Delium. Capture o 


f 




Amphipolis by Brasidas, . 
Battle of Amphipolis, . 
Peace of Nicias, . 


424 
422 
421 




Battle of Mantinea, 


418 




The Athenians seize Melos, . 


416 




The Expedition against Syracuse 
The Spartans fortify Decelea, 
Revolt of Chios, . 


415-413 

413 > 
412 




Revolution of the Four Hundrec 

at Athens, 
Battle of Cynossema. Battle o 

Cyzicus, .... 
Battle of Notium, 
Battle of Arginusae, 


I 

411 
f 

410 
407 
406 


Second Period, 
Ionian or Decelean 
„ War : fought in 
the iEgean and 
Hellespont. 


Battle of ^Egospotami, 
Surrender of Athens, . 


405 
404 





Contemporary Events. 
The West. The East. 

The Romans begin the siege Artaxerxes, King of 

of Veil, ... 406 Persia, 

Darius Nothus, 



464-424 
424-404 



CHAPTEE XXVIII 

THE SPARTAN SUPREMACY. — THE THIRTY AT ATHEXS 

Dates. B.C. 

Usurpation of the Thirty Tyrants, . . . 404 
Pausanias restores the Democracy, . . . 403 

Chief Names. — Critias, Theramenes, Thrasybulus, Lysander, 
Pausanias. 

After seeing the demolition of the Long Walls fairly 
begun, Lysander left the completion of the work to the 
unfortunate Athenians themselves, and sailed off to reduce 
Samos, but he was soon summoned back to Athens to aid 
in overthrowing the democracy. Theramenes began to 
intrigue with the restored oligarchical exiles, to estab- 
lish an oligarchy ; and the oligarchical clubs were set in 
motion again, as in the days of the Four Hundred. Among 
these exiles was a noble named Critias, a man of great 
ability and eloquence, and once a friend and pupil of 
the philosopher Socrates. He at once took the lead, aided 
by Theramenes, and supported by the knights ; the leading 
democratic generals and statesmen were thrown into prison ; 
and a proposal was made in the Ecclesia to establish a 
Board of Thirty, including of course Critias and Theramenes, 
to revise the Constitution ; and the Ecclesia, overborne by 
the outspoken threats of Lysander, was obliged to vote it. 
Lysander then returned to Samos, which was soon after- 
wards compelled by famine to surrender ; the democrats 
were allowed to depart with the loss of all their property, 

229 



230 HISTORY OF GREECE 

and the government was as usual put into the hands of a 
Council of Ten and Spartan Harrnost. 

His work now being completed, Lysander came back in 
triumph to Sparta, bringing vast spoil, including the figure- 
heads of the captured tiremes, and four hundred and seventy 
talents, the residue of the money given him by Cyrus. 
This spoil the Spartans insisted on keeping to themselves, 
and thus gave great offence to Thebes and Corinth and the 
other allies, who now discovered that in freeing Greece they 
had only imposed a new master on themselves. It was un- 
fortunate both for Sparta and for Greece that her triumph 
had been accomplished by such a man as Lysander, instead 
of the more noble-minded Callicratidas. But the selfish 
ambition of Lysander was already rousing the jealousy of 
many in Sparta, including the king Pausanias. 

Meanwhile, the Board of Thirty at Athens were in no 
hurry to carry out the task for which they were appointed, 
but proceeded to get all the power into their own hands, 
whence they have obtained the name of the Thirty Tyrants. 
They established a Boule (Council) of their own followers, 
many of them former members of the Four Hundred, who, 
even if they wished, dared not disobey the bidding of 
Critias ; and they obtained from Sparta a force to garrison the 
Acropolis under a Harrnost named Callibius. Thus fortified, 
they put to death the democrats already imprisoned, and 
other noted politicians ; and then proceeded to seize and 
execute all other citizens whom they thought likely to 
prove dangerous. A veritable reign of terror now existed 
in the city ; many fled into exile, including Thrasybulus, 
the famous general, and were hospitably received by the 
neighbouring states, especially by Thebes. Theramenes, who 
had disapproved of the introduction of the Lacedemonian 
garrison, began to feel that the Thirty were going too far ; he 
knew that a government founded on bloodshed could not last 
in Athens. He therefore determined to leave the sinking ship, 



THE SPAR TAN SUP RE MA CY 231 

as he had clone in the clays of the Four Hundred, and began 
to form a party in opposition to Critias ; but he found to his 
cost that Critias was a different sort of man from the leaders 
of the Four Hundred. He now proposed that the revision 
of the Constitution, for which the Thirty had been appointed, 
should be carried out, and that all citizens who furnish 
themselves with the arms of hoplites should be given the 
franchise. Critias refused this ; but he drew up a list of 
three thousand, whose only privilege was that they could 
not be put to death without the vote of the Senate. Soon 
afterwards, on Theramenes refusing to join in a scheme for 
killing and plundering the wealthy metics (see p. 141), Critias 
accused him before the Boule, having taken the precaution to 
surround the Senate House with a band of armed adherents. 
Theramenes defended himself so well that the Boule loudly 
applauded ; whereupon Critias, after conferring with his 
colleagues, struck his name out of the list of the three 
thousand, and, being thus able to put him to death by a 
mere vote of the Thirty, ordered the executioners to carry 
him off. Theramenes, loudly protesting, clung to the 
Senate House altar ; but the Boule, surrounded by Critias's 
armed adherents, dared not object. Theramenes was dragged 
off to prison, and put to death in the usual Athenian 
fashion, by being given a poison named hemlock, which 
he drank, with the words, 'Here's to the health of 
gentle Critias.' From his readiness to change sides, he 
was, before the days of the Thirty Tyrants, ridiculed by 
Aristophanes, the great comic dramatist of Athens, and 
called the Buskin, a shoe that would fit either foot. But 
some regard him as a well-meaning politician, who aimed 
at establishing a more moderate government than the 
democracy, and only turned against his friends when they 
went further than he expected. 

After the death of Theramenes, Critias continued his 
course unchecked : altogether about fifteen hundred citizens 



232 HISTORY OF GREECE 

are said to have been put to death ; but his course was 
now nearly run. At the end of the year a little band of 
exiles, about a hundred men, came from Thebes, under 
Thrasybulus, and seized the fort which guarded the wild pass 
of Phyle (see map, -p. 146), where the road from Athens to 
Thebes crosses the mountains, about twelve miles from the 
city. The Thirty sent a force to take the fort, but it was 
repulsed ; and a snowstorm, which Thrasybulus declared was 
sent by the gods, drove them back to Athens. Part of the 
Lacedaemonian garrison was next sent ; but Thrasybulus, 
whose forces meanwhile had swelled to seven hundred 
owing to his original success, surprised them at daybreak 
and routed them, capturing a large quantity of arms. The 
Thirty began to be alarmed, and in order to secure them- 
selves a retreat, treacherously seized the town of Eleusis, 
and carried off to Athens all the hoplites that were not on 
their side, and put them to death. Thrasybulus now 
left Phyle and boldly seized the Peiraeus, where many 
citizens joined him, but mostly unarmed. When attacked 
by the Thirty he retreated to a temple in Munychia, 
approachable only by one 'steep street ; here the Thirty 
could make no use of the numbers. They were defeated 
with the loss of seventy men, Critias himself being among 
the slain. This double blow greatly disheartened the Thirty, 
and spread disunion among their followers, who held a 
meeting and deposed them, appointing instead a new Board 
of Ten, one from each tribe. The Thirty fled to Eleusis, 
while the Ten defended Athens against the attacks of 
Thrasybulus, who was growing stronger every day. 

Suddenly all was changed. Lysander, in answer to an 
appeal from the Ten and the Thirty, appeared with a fleet 
and army, and blockaded Thrasybulus in the Peiraeus : his 
surrender could only be a question of time. But Pausanias, 
king of Sparta, did not wish Athens to fall into the power 
of Lysander, and obtained leave to go himself to Athens. 



THE SPAR TAN SUPREMA C V 233 

With contingents from all the allies except Thebes and 
Corinth, who refused to join in an expedition against 
Athens, Pausanias arrived in Attica, and Lysander was 
obliged to submit to his orders. A slight victory over 
Thrasybulus satisfied the military honour of Pausanias, and 
he could now afford to be generous ; he privately instructed 
Tlrrasybulus to send envoys to him, and sent them on to 
Sparta, together with envoys from the Ten in the city. The 
Spartans thereupon sent fifteen commissioners to aid 
Pausanias in affecting a reconciliation. The terms of peace 
arranged were, that the exiles should return, and there 
should be a general amnesty except for the Thirty and a 
very few more. Eleusis was left in their possession as a 
refuge for any of their partisans who might fear for their 
lives. Both sides took an oath to observe these conditions, 
and Pausanias retired, taking the Lacedaemonian garrison 
with him. Thrasybulus and the exiles from the Peirseus 
marched in a solemn procession to Athens, and offered 
sacrifice in the Acropolis for their restoration. The democracy 
was restored, never again to be overthrown while Athens 
was free. The democrats made a solemn oath with their 
opponents that no one should suffer from any acts com- 
mitted under the Thirty, and the old laws of the democracy 
were re-enacted and revised, and the Athenians ever after- 
wards held this year (b.c. 403) iu great reverence, the 
archonship of Eucleides as it was called, after the name of 
the Archon Eponymus (see p. 64) : the preceding year 
was known as the Year of Anarchy. 

The Athenians remained faithful to their oaths ; no 
vengeance was taken on any in the city ; but the Thirty in 
Eleusis began to collect mercenaries to renew the strife, 
whereupon the Athenians marched against them, and put 
to death the leaders who came out for a conference. The 
rest of the Thirty and their partisans fled into exile, and 
Eleusis was reunited to Athens. 



234 HIS TOR Y OF GREECE 

Lysander, deeply humiliated at his treatment by 
Pausanias, obtained leave to return to Asia, where he 
hoped to re-establish his former influence. Many com- 
plaints had come to Sparta from the islands and coast 
towns against the exactions and brutalities of the govern- 
ments and Harmosts set up by him, but these received little 
attention from the Ephors ; now, however, a complaint 
came from Pharnabazus that Lysander had expelled the 
inhabitants of Sestus, and the Ephors recalled him, and 
soon afterwards permitted any states that wished to do so, 
to overthrow the Councils of Ten, but the Harmosts still 
remained. Lysander, not caring to remain for the present 
at Sparta, obtained leave to visit the temple of Zeus 
Ammon in Africa, and remained abroad a year or two, 
visiting also the oracles of Delphi and Dodona, apparently 
with some hope of obtaining power and even the throne at 
Sparta by their aid. 

During the Tyranny of the Thirty, the career of 
Alcibiades came to a miserable end. After the battle of 
iEgospotami, fearing the vengeance of the Spartans, he fled 
for refuge to Pharnabazus, who for a time permitted him to 
reside in his satrapy. The Thirty, however, feared him as 
a possible rival ; and the Spartans, probably at their request, 
sent orders to Lysander, at that time in the iEgean, to have 
him put to death. At Lysander's request, Pharnabazus 
sent a party who set fire to his house ; Alcibiades rushed 
out sword in hand, and his assailants, not daring to face him, 
overwhelmed him from a distance with their missiles. So 
perished one of the ablest and most dangerous of Athenian 
statesmen. By advocating the fatal expedition against 
Syracuse, and by the treacherous advice he gave Sparta, he 
dealt two mortal blows against his country which his 
subsequent brilliant success never wholly atoned for. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

THE TEN THOUSAND. — XENOPHON AND SOCRATES 

Dates. B.C. 
Expedition of the Ten Thousand. Battle of 

Cunaxa, 401 

Arrival of the Ten Thousand at Trapezus, . . 400 

Execution of Socrates at Athens, .... 399 

Chief Names.— Cyrus, Artaxerxes, Clearchus, Xenophon. 
Tissaphernes, Socrates. 

In b.c. 401 a campaign took place, which, though belonging 
to the history of Persia rather than of Greece, produced a 
great effect on the minds of the Greeks and the future 
course of history ; this was the famous Campaign of the Ten 
Thousand. King Darius died B.C. 404. Cyrus, who was at 
Susa at the time, was disappointed of his hope of succeeding 
to the throne, and his elder brother Artaxerxes, a man of 
little ability or courage, became king. Accused by 
Tissaphernes of conspiring against his brother's life, Cyrus 
only escaped death by the mediation of his mother, and was 
sent back to his satrapy ; he returned to Sardis, nursing 
bitter feelings of revenge against his brother. Cyrus knew 
well the superiority of Greeks over Asiatics, and resolved 
to enlist a Greek army and fight his brother for the throne ; 
but as no Greek would be willing to march such a vast 
distance inland, he gave out that he was about to attack the 
mountain brigands of Pisidia. 

235 



236 HISTORY OF GREECE 

During the long years of the Peloponnesian war, many 
men had grown accustomed to soldiering, and when the 
peace came were reluctant to return to the ordinary life of 
peace. They were ready to hire themselves out to any one 
who would pay them ; and it is from this time that the 
rise of mercenaries may be dated, which later on almost 
took the place of citizen soldiers. 

Cyrus, therefore, had little difficulty in collecting a force 
of about twelve thousand hoplites and two thousand light 
troops. They were under the command of a Spartan 
named Clearchus, who was a friend of Cyrus, and in the 
secret of the real object of the expedition. In the ranks 
was a young Athenian of good family named Xen&phon, 
who was serving as a volunteer, and afterwards wrote the 
history of the expedition. 

In the spring of B.C. 401 Cyrus started from Sardis with 
his Greeks and a hundred thousand Asiatics, and began the 
long inland march. Just before reaching Cilicia, the princess 
of the country brought Cyrus money, of which he was in 
great need, and Cyrus held a review in her honour. When 
the Greeks raised their war-cry and charged, the Asiatics 
fled in terror, and the princess, who had never seen a Greek 
army, sprang down from her litter and rushed away on foot. 
Cyrus was greatly delighted at the effect produced by his 
Greeks. The march was continued over the range of Mount 
Taurus by a long and difficult pass called the Cilician Gates, 
which was but feebly defended, and Tarsus was reached. 
It was now plain to the Greeks that they had been tricked, 
for Pisidia was now passed and so could not be the object 
of the campaign : they accordingly mutinied and refused to 
go any further. But Cyras, aided by Clearchus, pacified 
them by telling them that he was marching against a 
satrap on the Euphrates, and by promising them more 
pay. The army reached the Euphrates unopposed, and 
then Cyrus threw off the mask and told the Greeks he 



THE TEN THOUSAND 



237 



was really leading them against the king of Persia. There 
was much grumbling, but to retreat by themselves was im- 
possible ; so they contented themselves with demanding a 
present on arriving at Babylon, to which Cyrus consented. 

The Euphrates was crossed by a ford at Thapsacus, and 
the army advanced down its left bank towards Babylon 




ROUTE OF THE TEN THOUSAND 

still unopposed ; and at last, about a month after the cross- 
ing of the Euphrates, and more than six months after the 
start from Sardis, they encountered the army of Artaxerxes 
at the village of Cunaxa, ninety miles north of Babylon, in 
the autumn of B.C. 401. The king's army was said to 
number over a million men, and with him was Tissaphernes, 
who had all along guessed the object of the expedition. The 
Greeks who were on the right put to flight the Asiatics 
opposed them without a blow ; but in the centre, Cyrus 



238 HISTORY OF GREECE 

catching sight of Artaxerxes, charged towards hirn with 
only a few followers, shouting, ' I see the man ? : he 
succeeded in wounding Artaxerxes, but was himself over- 
powered and slain. The Asiatic part of his army, hearing 
of his death, fled back to their camp. 

It was not till the next morning that the news reached 
the victorious Greeks, and it filled them with despair ; they 
were now in the very heart of the Persian empire, more 
than a thousand miles from home, and they could not 
return by the road by which they had come, for they had 
exhausted all the provisions. However, the Persians were 
greatly afraid of them and dared not attack them openly ; 
and Tissaphernes came to their camp offering to give them 
provisions and conduct them back. The Greeks agreed to 
his terms and started on their homeward march, crossing 
the Tigris and marching up its eastern bank. But in a few 
days, Tissaphernes treacherously murdered Clearchus and 
the other generals, and summoned the army to surrender. 
The despair of the Greeks was now greater than ever, but 
they were encouraged by a speech from Xenophon, and 
elected fresh generals, one of whom was Xenophon himself, 
who thenceforward took a leading part in the retreat. 

They now continued their march, harassed at first by the 
cavalry of Tissaphernes ; but they beat off the attacks, and 
pushed on northwards into the inhospitable mountain 
district of Armenia. Fierce tribes inhabited the country, 
who resisted the invaders at every pass ; the snows of 
winter lay deep on the ground ; but animated by the words 
and example of Xenophon, the Greeks forced their way on 
until, five months after the battle of Cunaxa, the Euxine 
burst into view, and was greeted by shouts of ' Thalatta ! 
Thalatta! 5 (the sea! the sea!) and in two days they 
reached the Greek colony of Trapezus (Trebizond) in the 
spring of B.C. 400. Here they rested a month and celebrated 
games in honour of their preservation : they hoped that their 



THE TEN THOUSAND 239 

weary marching was over, and that they would be able to 
return to Greece on shipboard ; but they were disappointed. 
The Greek colonies regarded them with suspicion ; and the 
Spartans, who at this time wished to be on good terms with 
Persia, looked on them with disfavour. Eventually, after 
many difficulties, they reached Byzantium ; but the Spartan 
Harmost treated them so badly that they were compelled 
to take service with a Thracian prince : the following year, 
however, a change in the policy of Sparta brought about a 
change in the fortunes of the Ten Thousand, and they found 
themselves again engaged in a war against the Persians. 

Soon afterwards Xenophon returned to Athens, but he 
found that during his absence the Athenians had, in what 
seems to us a most unaccountable manner, condemned to 
death the great and good philosopher Socrates, of whom he 
was a devoted disciple (b.c. 399). Socrates was born in the 
year B.C. 469, and was brought up as a sculptor, but soon 
gave himself up to philosophy. The philosophers of that 
time occupied themselves chiefly in speculations as to the 
origin of the universe or in brilliant oratorical displays ; 
Socrates taught that the business of a philosopher was to 
search after truth and to confine himself to questions of 
right and wrong in the daily life of man. Having been 
declared by the oracle of Delphi to be the wisest of mankind, 
he said that the reason was that he alone was aware of his 
own ignorance, while other teachers thought they knew all 
things : his method of teaching was to cross-question his 
hearers, and thus prove to them the uncertainty of their 
fancied knowledge. He attracted round him numbers of 
young men of high family, among whom, besides Xenophon, 
was Plato, afterwards himself a great philosopher, also 
Alcibiades and Critias, who were perhaps charmed by his 
arguments without profiting by his teaching. Though no 
friend of the democracy, whose faults he could see only too 
plainly, he did his duty as a good citizen, showing his 



240 HISTORY OF GREECE 

endurance at the siege of Potidasa (see p. 166) and his steady 
valour in the rout of Delium (see p. 180) ; while, at the risk 
of his life, he stood out alone against the execution of the six 
generals and the tyranny of Critias. 

Socrates was accused of impiety and of perverting the 
minds of young men ; and the jury, remembering his friend- 
ship for Critias and Alcibiades, the cause of the terrible 
troubles from which the state was only just beginning to 
recover, convicted him. He might, however, have escaped 
with a moderate fine, but he chose to defy his opponents, 
and treated the whole accusation with lofty contempt ; 
whereupon he was condemned to death, and after a month's 
imprisonment drank the fatal hemlock (see p. 231) with calm 
resignation, surrounded by weeping friends. The Athenians, 
it is said, bitterly repented afterwards of the rash sentence ; 
and Socrates soon was universally regarded as the greatest 
philosopher who had ever appeared ; and all the schools of 
philosophy which afterwards arose in Greece owed their 
origin to his teaching. 

Xenophon quitted Athens in grief and disgust, and 
returned to share the fortunes of his old comrades. His 
subsequent career will be described hereafter. 



CHAPTER XXX 

PERSIAN WAR. — SPARTA LOSES HER NAVAL EMPIRE 

Dates. B.C. 

War between Sparta and Persia, . . . . 399 
Agesilaus becomes King of Sparta. Conspiracy 

of Cinadon at Sparta. Agesilaus sent to Asia, . 396 
War between Sparta and Thebes. Battle of 

Haliartus, 395 

Agesilaus recalled to Greece. Battle of Cnidus, . 394 

Chief Names. — Tissaphernes, Tithraustes, Pharnabazus, 
Agesilaus, Lysander, Conon. 

The expedition and safe return of the Ten Thousand had 
greatly impressed the Greeks, and especially the Spartans, 
with a sense of the weakness of the Persian Empire, which, 
owing to its vast size, had still been thought formidable in 
spite of Marathon and Salamis. 

Now it will be remembered that in the agreement made 
with the Persians in the closing years of the Peloponnesian 
war, Sparta had admitted the right of the Great King to the 
Greek coast- cities of Asia Minor. This right Cyrus, being 
occupied in preparing his expedition and wishing to remain 
friendly to Sparta, had not enforced. But after his death, 
Tissaphernes was sent back to Sardis as satrap by Artaxerxes 
as a reward for his services, and immediately began to attack 
these cities, which, thereupon, sent envoys to Sparta asking 
for aid. 

The Spartans, who, as has been mentioned, were 
Q 



242 HISTORY OF GREECE 

unpopular in Greece owing to their overbearing conduct, and 
had increased their unpopularity by an unprovoked attack 
on their weak neighbour, Elis, thought that a war with the 
national enemy, Persia, would be a good method of retriev- 
ing their reputation, especially as the Ten Thousand, being 
veterans in war against Persia, would form a formidable 
addition to their forces. They, therefore, despatched a 
general named Thimbron to Ephesus (b.c. 399). His army 
consisted of the Ten Thousand, now reduced in number 
to six thousand, five thousand Peloponnesians, and three 
thousand Asiatic Greeks ; there were also three hundred 
Athenian cavalry, for the Athenians as subject allies, being 
required to furnish troops, sent some of the knights as a 
punishment for their support of the Thirty Tyrants. 

Thus the war of revenge, which had slumbered since the 
Athenians had made peace with Persia fifty years before, 
broke out afresh ; and henceforward the idea of an expedi- 
tion to overthrow the great empire was continually before 
the minds of the Greeks. But they were too much dis- 
tracted by their own petty jealousies and disputes to 
undertake such an expedition, which it would require their 
united strength to carry through. Sparta had too lately 
made use of Persian aid to overthrow Athens ; so that the 
other states did not trust her sincerity, and preferred to join 
the Persians against her ; even Athens herself, struggling to 
regain her independence, was ready to make use of any 
means to accomplish that end, even the aid of the once 
hated Persian. The time for the overthrow of Persia had 
not yet come ; it was destined never to be earned out by 
Greece, but by the semi-barbarian Macedonian after he 
had first crushed the liberties of the Greeks. 

With all the forces at his disposal, Thimbron accomplished 
nothing. His successor Dercyllidas was more successful, 
and after two years made a truce with Tissaphernes (b.c. 
396), that ambassadors might be sent to Sparta to settle on 



PERSIAN WAR 243 

what terms the coast-cities should be freed. But instead 
of making peace, the Spartans were at this moment resolved 
to carry on the war with more vigour than ever. A most 
dangerous conspiracy, led by a young man named Cinadon, 
a Spartan who had lost his rank (see p. 41) had just been 
discovered, and the Ephors were anxious to "divert the 
minds of the people by a vigorous attack on Persia, 
especially as news came that the Persians were preparing 
a large Phoenician fleet, under Conon the Athenian admiral, 
who had escaped from -ZEgospotami. 

There was at this time a new king at Sparta. Agis 
died, B.C. 399. He should have been succeeded by his son 
Leotychides ; but Leotychides was believed to be not really 
the son of Agis, and Lysander persuaded the Ephors to 
elect instead Agesilaus, half-brother of Agis. Agesilaus 
was a man of middle age, who had never as yet particularly 
distinguished himself, and Lysander intended to use him 
as a tool to regain his own power : he proved, however, 
a man of strong character, and one of the most famous 
kings and soldiers that Sparta ever possessed. He was 
slightly lame of one foot, and there was an oracle bidding 
the Spartans beware of a lame reign ; but Lysander declared 
that it meant the reign of a man like Leotychides, who was 
not a true descendant of the royal line. How the prophecy 
about the lame reign was fulfilled will be seen later. 

It was now arranged, at the instigation of Lysander, that 
Agesilaus should be sent with fresh troops and take 
command in the war against Persia ; he was to be 
accompanied by thirty Spartans of high birth as advisers, 
among whom was Lysander. Lysander intended to have 
the real control of the war, as in the clays of iEgospotami ; 
his main object was to re-establish his lost influence in the 
iEgean. Agesilaus, on the other hand, was sincerely anxious 
to lead a united Greek army to overthrow the Persian 
Empire. He met with disappointment from the first ; 



244 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Corinth, Thebes, and Athens refused, on various excuses, 
to send contingents. But that was not all ; Agesilaus, 
regarding himself as a second Agamemnon leading the 
Greeks to the conquest of Asia, proceeded, like him, to offer 
sacrifice before starting at Aulis, a port on the northern 
coast of Bceotia ; but the Thebans would not allow it, 
and drove him away by force. Ever afterwards we shall 
find Agesilaus a bitter enemy of Thebes. 

On his arrival in Asia (b.c. 396), Agesilaus at first con- 
tinued the truce with Tissaphernes ; and while the army thus 
lay inactive at Ephesus, Lysander was surrounded by his 
old partisans, who, thinking that he was the real head of 
the expedition, took no notice of Agesilaus. But Agesilaus, 
to Lysander^s astonishment, refused every request he made 
for any of his followers, till at last Lysander, discovering 
that Agesilaus intended to be his master and not his tool, 
requested to be sent on some command away from Ephesus, 
and Agesilaus sent him to the Hellespont against 
Pharnabazus. Such was the end of Lysanders attempt 
at self-aggrandisement in the JEgean. 

Tissaphernes, having received reinforcements from 
Artaxerxes during the truce, ordered Agesilaus to depart 
from Asia ; whereupon Agesilaus invaded Phrygia, 
Tissaphernes having sent his main army into Caria, where 
he expected to be attacked. Agesilaus obtained much 
spoil by his unexpected attack, but he suffered from want 
of cavalry ; the few horse that were with him were worsted 
in a skirmish by the Persian cavalry, and he was obliged 
to return with his plunder to Ephesus. 

The winter was spent in preparations for the next 
campaign ; Ephesus became one vast camp and arsenal, 
and Agesilaus raised a cavalry force by ordering the rich 
Asiatic Greeks to serve as horsemen, or to provide a 
substitute fully armed and horsed. In the spring of b.c. 
395, he advanced against Sardis, the capital of Tissaphernes's 



PERSIAN WAR 245 

satrapy : a battle took place between the Persian cavalry 
and the Greek army, in which the Greeks were victorious 
and captured the Persian camp with a large amount of 
money. Agesilaus now ravaged the country up to the 
walls of Sardis. Tissaphernes, who was at Sardis, made no 
attempt to retrieve the disaster with the rest of his army ; 
and Artaxerxes, disgusted at his failure to accomplish 
anything with the forces lately sent him, and influenced by 
the Queen Parysatis, who considered Tissaphernes as the 
cause of the death of Cyrus, sent down Tithraustes as his 
successor with orders to behead him. Tissaphernes was 
seized by surprise in his bath and beheaded — a fate which, 
after his career of intrigue and treachery, can hardly be 
called undeserved. Tithraustes, however, preferred intrigue 
to fighting : he made an armistice with Agesilaus, who, on 
condition of receiving thirty talents for the support of 
his army, agreed to transfer the war to the satrapy of 
Pharnabazus. Then Tithraustes took a most effectual step 
for ridding Asia of the Spartans : he sent Timocrates, a 
Rhodian, to persuade the Thebans, Argives, and Corinthians 
to attack Sparta, offering them fifty talents towards the 
expenses of the war. 

The Spartan fleet opposed to Conon lay at Rhodes ; 
but the Rhodians, who had long groaned under the tyranny 
of the Spartan Harmost, encouraged by the nearness of 
Conon, revolted, and drove the Spartan fleet out of the 
harbour. Rhodes now became Conon's headquarters. 
When the Spartans heard of the loss of this important 
island, they appointed Agesilaus to the command of the sea 
as well as land forces. He at once set about raising 
new ships from the islands, and put his brother-in-law, 
Peisander, in command. Agesilaus himself met with little 
resistance in Phrygia : he plundered the country and took 
many towns, and went into winter- quarters at Dascylium, 
the residence of Pharnabazus. A successful raid by the 



246 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Persian cavalry was avenged by the surprise and destruction 
of Phamabazus's camp, after which a personal interview 
took place between Agesilaus and Pharnabazus. The 
simple surroundings of the Spartan king formed a striking 
contrast to the splendid retinue of the satrap. Pharnabazus 
began by accusing Agesilaus of ingratitude to an old ally : 
Agesilaus protested that he had no wish to fight against 
Pharnabazus ; his enemy was the king of Persia ; and he 
promised to spare his satrapy for the future. The inter- 
view ended with declarations of friendship between the 
two commanders. Agesilaus left Phrygia, and began 
preparations for the next campaign : he received large 
reinforcements ; the coast-cities were enthusiastic in his 
support, and he had high hopes that the time for the real 
attack on the Persian Empire had come. 

In Greece, in spite of their hatred of Sparta, the Argives 
and Corinthians could not quite muster up their courage 
to accept the offer of Tithraustes. The Thebans were more 
venturesome ; a quarrel having arisen between the Phocians 
and Locrians, they interfered on behalf of the Locrians. 
The Phocians appealed to Sparta, who at once declared 
war on Thebes, thinking it a good opportunity to chastise 
her. Ly sander, who had returned home from the Hellespont, 
was to invade Bceotia from the north with a force of 
Phocians and other tribes, while the king Pausanias, with 
the Peloponnesian force, was to meet him before the town of 
Haliartus (see map p. 146). The Thebans, perceiving their 
danger, applied for aid to their old enemies the Athenians, 
reminding them how they had helped their exiles in restoring 
the democracy, and promising to aid them in recovering their 
lost empire. In spite of the unprotected state of their city 
without its Long Walls, the Athenians voted for war against 
Sparta ; but before their forces joined the Thebans, 
Ly sander attacked Haliartus without waiting for the 
arrival of Pausanias, and was defeated and slain ; and 



PERSIAN WAR 247 

his selfish and intriguing career was ended. Soon after- 
wards Pausanias arrived ; but finding the Thebans rein- 
forced by the Athenians, and feeling distrustful of his 
Peloponnesians, he agreed to depart from Boeotia on condi- 
tion of receiving the bodies of Lysander and the other slain 
for burial. For this cowardly conduct he was condemned 
to death on his return to Sparta, but fled into exile and 
soon afterwards died. He was succeeded by his son 
Agesipolis. 

The result of the defeat of Lysander and the retreat of 
Pausanias from Boeotia was, that Corinth and Argos, as well 
as Eubcea and several other smaller states of northern 
Greece, joined the alliance of Thebes and Athens. Thus 
within ten years after these states had banded together 
with Sparta for the destruction of Athens, they were 
banded together in alliance with Athens against Sparta ; 
and preferred to accept the alliance of their national 
enemies the Persians, rather than join the Spartans in 
overthrowing them. Such was the hatred the selfish 
policy of Sparta had aroused ; the jealousy which the 
Greeks felt against any state which seemed to be trying to 
make itself too powerful was now transferred from Athens 
to Sparta. 

The Spartans were so much alarmed at this coalition 
against them, that they sent Agesilaus orders to return at 
once to Greece with his army. These orders reached him 
in the spring of b.c. 394. Leaving four thousand troops to 
protect the coast-cities, and promising if victorious to come 
back again to them, Agesilaus started on his homeward 
march through Thrace, bitterly disappointed at being forced 
to abandon his projected campaign. Thus the skilful policy 
of Tithraustes saved Persia by land ; by sea a still more 
fatal blow was struck : Conon, by special request to the 
king of Persia, had obtained Pharnabazus as his colleague : 
with a fleet partly Phoenician and partly Greek, they sailed 



248 HISTORY OF GREECE 

against Peisander who lay at Cnidus (see map, p. 93), in 
the summer, B.C. 394. Peisander did not decline the combat, 
though his fleet was inferior in numbers, but many of the 
islanders in the fleet fled, the rest of his ships were driven 
ashore and captured, and he himself fell fighting to the 
last. Conon and Pharnabazus sailed through the iEgean 
with their victorious fleet ; and every island groaning under 
the yoke of the Spartan Harmost, so different from the 
milder sway of Athens, eagerly welcomed them as deliverers, 
on being promised their independence by Pharnabazus : 
even Ephesus and the other coast-cities, now that Agesilaus 
was gone, readily opened their gates. Thus Conon avenged 
iEgospotami ; and the naval empire of Sparta was shattered 
at one blow, after it had lasted only ten years. 



CHAPTER XXXI 



THE CORINTHIAN WAR. — PEACE OF ANTALCIDAS 



Dates. 


B.C. 


Battles of Corinth and Coronea, . 


394 


Rebuilding of the Long Walls of Athens, 


393 


Destruction of a Spartan Mora, . 


390 


Surprise of the Peiraeus, .... 


388 


Peace of Antalcidas, 


387 



Chief Names. — Agesilaus, Conon, Iphicrates, Thrasybulus, 
Antalcidas. 

The spring of b.c 394, when Agesilaus was sadly starting 
on his homeward march, and Conon and Pharnabazus were 
preparing to sail against Peisander, found the forces of the 
confederates assembled at Corinth, numbering twenty-four 
thousand hoplites, besides cavalry and light troops. As the 
isthmus was the scene of most of the fighting, the war is 
known as the Corinthian war. 

At the council of war held at Corinth, it was proposed 
to march at once on Sparta and destroy the wasps in their 
nest. But, finding that the Spartans were already in the 
field and had reached Sicyon with an army of about equal 
strength, the allies fell back to Corinth, in front of which a 
pitched battle was fought. The Spartans on the right of 
their army routed the Athenians with great loss, but their 
Peloponnesian allies were defeated -all along the line by the 
confederates, who, however, returning in disorder from the 

249 



250 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



pursuit, were severely handled by the better-disciplined 
Spartans. Thus the victory remained with the Spartans, 
who themselves lost only eight men ; their allies lost about a 
thousand, while the confederates lost nearly three thousand : 
the Spartans, however, in view of the severe loss of their allies, 
did not feel strong enough to force the isthmus, which was 




ISTHMUS OF CORINTH 

protected on one side by Long Walls a mile and a half 
long, extending from Corinth to its western port, Lechamm, 
and on the other by a rugged mountain ridge about four 
miles long, between Corinth and its eastern port, Cenchrea. 
Dercyllidas, Agesilaus's predecessor, was sent to convey to 
him the news of the victory, and met him at Amphipolis. 
Agesilaus ordered him to proceed to Asia and carry the 
good tidings to the Greek cities ; but when he reached Asia 
he heard of the battle of Cnidus and found that the cities 
were in revolt against Sparta. He threw himself into 
Abyclus, which he persuaded to remain loyal, and held it 
against all effort of Pharnabazus and Conon : Abydus 
became a place of refuge for the expelled Harmosts. 
Agesilaus, meanwhile, still ignorant of the disaster, 



THE CORINTHIAN WAR 251 

proceeded on his march to Greece, forcing his way with 
some difficulty through Thessaly, for many of the tribes 
were friendly to the Boeotians. Marching through the Pass 
of Thermopylae, which the Phocians kept open for him, he 
entered Boeotia, and on the plain of Coronea, on the main 
road to Thebes, found his progress barred by the army of 
the Thebans reinforced by contingents from the allies at 
Corinth. An eclipse of the sun (which astronomers place 
on the 14th of August) always regarded as of ill omen by 
the ancients, was followed by the arrival of the tidings of 
Cnidus : but Agesilaus, not wishing to discourage his men, 
proclaimed that a victory had been won, but Peisander had 
been killed. Agesilaus had been reinforced by a few 
Lacedaemonians, as well as by the Phocians, and Boeotians 
of Orchomenus, and the forces on both sides were fairly 
equal. 

The battle of Coronea began in the same way as the battle 
of Corinth. The Thebans on the right of their army were 
victorious, as were the Lacedaemonians and ' Ten Thousand J 
on the right and centre of Agesilaus's army. But on this 
occasion the Thebans, instead of falling into disorder as at 
Corinth, kept their ranks, and, wheeling about, prepared to 
force their way back through the victorious troops of 
Agesilaus, who, instead of assailing their flanks and rear 
as they passed, preferred to meet them face to face. The 
conflict that followed was one of the most desperate 
recorded in Greek history ; Agesilaus himself was wounded 
and with difficulty rescued ; but at last the Thebans, who 
were formed in a deep column, forced their way through 
the Lacedaemonian lines with tremendous loss. The victory 
belonged to Agesilaus, who remained master of the battle- 
field ; but the chief glory rested with the Thebans. 

Agesilaus did not feel disposed to attack the Thebans 
again after the battle. He marched to Delphi, where he 
dedicated to the god Apollo a tenth of the spoil of Asia, 



252 HISTORY OF GREECE 

and then returned to Sparta by sea across the Corinthian 
Gulf, and disbanded his army. 

The following year (b.c. 393) the Spartans were still un- 
able to force the Isthmus ; and Pharnabazus having crossed 
the iEgean with his fleet to harry the Peloponnese, Conon 
persuaded him to leave himself with the fleet in order to 
rebuild the Long Walls of Athens while the Spartans could 
not interrupt the work. The Boeotians lent their aid ; in 
the course of the summer the walls were completed ; and 
Athens was once again united to the sea, to the great joy 
of her citizens, who began at once building a fleet. Thus, 
by a very fortunate concurrence of circumstances, Conon ap- 
peared as a second Themistocles, the refouncler of Athenian 
greatness. 

The next year (b.c. 392) there was a fierce political 
conflict in Corinth ; for the richer class, whose lands were 
continuously ravaged, being desirous of peace, wished to 
make terms with Sparta ; but the people, with the help of 
the Argives, overpowered them. Many were slain, and others 
driven into exile ; and Corinth and Argos were confederated 
into one state. There were still many malcontents left in 
the city, and by their aid the Spartans, after a sharp battle, 
obtained possession of the Corinthian Long Walls and 
ravaged the country to the north of them ; they then 
retired to Sicyon, having pulled down a considerable length 
of the walls, which were soon repaired by the Athenians. 
Desultory warfare went on, and a force of mercenary 
'Peltasts,' under the Athenian Iphicrates, won several 
successes over the Peloponnesian allies. These were troops 
armed with sword and spear, but without the heavy shield 
and body-armour of the hoplites ; they obtained their name 
from the Pelta, or small round shield, they carried. 

In b.c. 391 Agesilaus was put in command of the Spartan 
forces, and retook the Long Walls ; while his brother Teleutias, 
at the head of a Spartan squadron, captured the port, 



THE CORINTHIAN WAR 253 

Lechaeuni. In the following year (b.c. 390) Agesilaus over- 
ran the whole isthmus ; and so great was the alarm among 
the confederates, that they began to think of making peace. 
The Thebans sent ambassadors to Agesilaus, and when they 
reached his camp, the triumphant general, surrounded by 
his staff, was watching a long line of prisoners defiling past 
guarded by Spartan hoplites. Agesilaus purposely took no 
notice of the Theban ambassadors, and they were humbly 
awaiting his commands when a horseman dashed up on a 
foaming horse and delivered him a message. 

Visibly affected, Agesilaus at once broke off the proceed- 
ings and ordered the camp under arms ; for the news was 
that a ' mora,' or regiment of the Spartans themselves, num- 
bering about 600 men — one sixth of the whole Spartan force 
— had been destroyed near Lechaeuni by the Peltasts of 
Iphicrates. The mora had gone as an escort to a body of 
Peloponnesian soldiers, who were returning home to celebrate 
a' festival ; as soon as it had conducted them beyond reach 
of the enemy, the mora turned back ; but when it was 
passing near Corinth, Iphicrates, who had watched the 
whole proceedings and thought it a good opportunity to pit 
his Peltasts against the Spartans, sallied out and assailed it in 
flank and rear with missiles. Being unaccompanied by light 
troops, the mora suffered severely. The Spartan commander 
ordered the younger hoplites to charge the assailants ; but 
the light-armed Peltasts easily evaded them, and as they 
fell back again, attacked and killed many of them. This 
manoeuvre was continually repeated, until at last the 
exhausted mora was charged and routed by some Athenian 
hoplites. More than half perished, the rest fled to Lechsemn. 
This disaster, the first that had befallen a Spartan force 
since Sphacteria, created a profound sensation throughout 
Greece. The Theban envoys made no mention of peace, 
and Agesilaus having offered battle to the garrison of 
Corinth, which Iphicrates was not foolish enough to accept, 



254 HISTORY OF GREECE 

inarched back to Sparta, being careful to pass Mantinea by- 
night : for the Spartans had been in the habit of jeering at 
the Mantineans for being beaten by Peltasts. Iphicrates 
now retook all the places captured by Agesilaus, except 
Lecheeuni, and the fighting round Corinth came to an end. 

The interest of the war was now transferred to Asia. 
Tithraustes had been succeeded in his satrapy by Tiribazus, 
who was friendly to the Spartans. In B.C. 392 the Spartans 
sent Antalcidas to Asia, who negotiated a jpeace with 
Tiribazus on the terms that all Greek cities should be inde- 
pendent, but that the coast-cities should belong to Persia in 
accordance with the agreement made by Sparta with 
Tissaphernes in the Peloponnesian war. But the Athenians 
and Thebans would not agree to this peace. However, 
Tiribazus aided the Spartans secretly with money, and 
arrested Conon on the charge of using the Persian fleet 
solely in the interests of Athens. Nothing more is heard 
of Conon ; but one account says he was put to death in 
prison. His loss was a great blow to Athens. Tiribazus 
went up to Susa to obtain the king's consent to the peace. 
During his absence the war went on. The Spartans had but 
little success. Thimbron (see p. 242) was sent to Ephesus, 
but was defeated and slain by the Persians. 

Teleutias, the brother of Agesilaus, was sent with thirty 
ships to Rhodes to help the oligarchs in a civil war with the 
democrats, who had revolted from Sparta in B.C. 395 (see 
p. 245). He surprised a small Athenian squadron of ten 
ships, but accomplished little else. The Athenians now sent 
out a fleet of forty ships under Thrasybulus, the first that 
they had equipped since JEgospotami. He sailed first to the 
Hellespont, where he won over many cities to Athens, 
especially Byzantium and Chalcedon, which gave her again 
the command of the Bosphorus. Having thus obtained 
supplies of money, of which he was much in need, he sailed 
down the iEgean, levying sums from many of the cities 



THE CORINTHIAN WAR 255 

and islands ; but at Aspendus, in Pamphylia, the conduct 
of his soldiers enraged the inhabitants, who surprised and 
killed him (b.c. 389). Thus perished, at a time when his 
services were most needed, the man to whom Athens owed 
her restored democracy ; he was an able commander and 
patriotic citizen, and an upright man. The Spartans sent 
out a force to check the progress of the Athenians on the 
Hellespont. The Athenians thereupon sent out Iphicrates 
with his Peltasts, who, by his skilful tactics, surprised and 
destroyed the Spartan force (b.c. 388). Meanwhile, desultory 
naval warfare had continued between the Spartans and 
Athenians, neither being strong enough to crush the other 
without Persian aid. The only striking incident was the 
Surprise of the Peirseus by Teleutias, who commanded a 
squadron at iEgina. Hearing that the Athenians had 
grown careless in their guard of the harbour, he surprised it 
at dawn with only twelve ships, sailing right inside and 
capturing many merchant ships with their crews, and much 
spoil and other prisoners, and even a few triremes, and then 
sailing off again to iEgina before any force could, be sum- 
moned to repel him. The Athenians were much annoyed 
at the misfortune, and in future kept a better guard. 

However, the end of the war was at hand. The Spartans 
sent out Antalcidas again to command in Asia ; and 
Tiribazus, who had come down again to the coast, took him 
up to Susa ; he there had an interview with the king of 
Persia, and the terms of the peace were settled. Eeinforced 
with the Persian fleet, Antalcidas drove the Athenian fleet 
from the Hellespont and iEgean ; then Tiribazus summoned 
the representatives of the Greek states to Sarclis to hear 
the decree of the king of Persia, which was the same 
as the terms offered by Antalcidas to Tiribazus, namely : 
the coast- cities were to belong to Persia ; all other 
cities were to be independent, except three small islands 
(Lemnos, Imbros, Scyros), which were to belong to Athens ; 



256 HISTORY OF GREECE 

any state refusing to accept the peace would be an enemy 
to Persia and the other states. The representatives were 
to report this edict to their governments, and reassemble at 
Sparta to sign their acceptance. The Athenians were too 
exhausted by the war to make any resistance, and all the 
states accepted the peace. The Thebans, indeed, claimed to 
sign for all Bceotia ; but Agesilaus pointed out that this was 
contrary to the edict, which declared ^ all cities to be inde- 
pendent, and threatened them with war if they persisted. 
So eager was he to attack the hated Thebans that he im- 
mediately began to put an army in the field ; but the 
Thebans gave way, and signed for themselves alone 
(b.c. 387). 

Thus was brought about this infamous peace, known in 
history as the Peace of Antalcidas, by which the Greek cities 
of Asia, ninety years after they had been freed by the 
energy of Athens, were handed over again to the yoke of 
the barbarian by the selfishness of Sparta. The freedom 
which Sparta had promised at the commencement of the 
Peloponnesian war turned out to consist of a few years J 
oppression under the Spartan Harmosts, followed by re- 
newed slavery to Persia ; never in recent times had the 
Greek cities of Asia been so secure or so prosperous as 
when they formed part of the Delian Confederacy under 
Athens. 

The state which gained most by the Corinthian war was 
Athens. Instead of being a subject ally of Sparta it was 
again an independent state, united to the sea by Long- 
Walls, with every hope of regaining some of its old 
naval power. Corinth and Argos suffered most ; they were 
both seriously weakened, and disappear henceforth from the 
front rank of Greek states. Thebes, though deprived of 
the headship of Bceotia, was still unbroken in spirit ; its 
military reputation had been greatly increased by the battles 
of Coronea and Corinth, and it was plain that the quarrel 



THE CORINTHIAN WAR 257 

between it and Sparta was by no means ended. Sparta 
itself was left supreme in Greece at the head of the only- 
confederacy which it permitted to exist ; but it had lost the 
naval supremacy of the iEgean, and had been forced to 
abandon its great project of the war of revenge against 
Persia. Henceforward its policy was harsher and more 
selfish than ever ; it despised the strength of Thebes and 
Athens. 



R 



CHAPTEE XXXII 

SEIZURE OF THE CADMEA. — THE BOEOTIAN WAR 

Dates. b. c. 

Conquest of Mantinea by Sparta, .... 385 
Sparta attacks the Olynthian Confederacy. 

Seizure of the Cadmea, . . . . 382 
Destruction of the Olynthian Confederacy. The 

Thebans recover the Cadmea, .... 379 
Alliance between Athens and Thebes against 
Sparta. Foundation of a new Athenian Con- 
federacy, 378 

Battle of Naxos, 376 

The Platseans expelled by Thebes, ... 373 

Peace of Callias (the Thebans excluded), . . 371 

Chief Names. — Phcebidas, Leontiades, Pelopidas, Agesilaus, 
Epaminondas, Cleombrotus, Chabrias, Timotheus. 

Trusting in this fancied security, Sparta now started on a 
career of self-aggrandisement which soon led to acts that 
shocked the public sentiment of Greece, and in the end 
brought about her downfall. Immediately after the peace, 
Agesilaus forced the Argives to break off their union with 
Corinth, and withdraw their garrison, as being contrary to 
the terms of the peace. He then restored the Corinthian 
exiles, and set up an oligarchical government friendly to 
Sparta, and thus made Sparta mistress of the Isthmus. 
She would now be able to attack Attica and Bceotia. 

Next, to further weaken and humiliate the Thebans, the 
Spartans restored the Platseans, who, since the capture of 

258 



SEIZURE OF THE CADMEA 259 

their city, had been living at Athens as Athenian citizens. 
Plateea thus became a Spartan garrison within ten miles 
of Thebes itself. Then they feil upon one of their own 
allies, the Arcadian city of Mantinea, which had in some 
way incurred their displeasure, and ordered it to demolish 
its walls. On its refusal, they besieged it, and when it was 
forced to surrender, compelled the inhabitants to demolish 
the city and live in five separate villages (b.c. 385). 

In b.c. 382, ambassadors came to Sparta from Acanthus 
and Apollonia, cities of Chalcidice in Thrace, praying for 
help against the neighbouring city of Olynthus. The cities 
of Chalcidice, which, it will be remembered, had been freed 
from Athens by Brasidas during the Peloponnesian war 
(see p. 181), being exposed to the attacks both of the 
barbarian Thracians and the semi-barbarian Macedonians 
had formed a league under Olynthus. Acanthus and 
Apollonia, having refused to join, were threatened with 
war ; hence their appeal to Sparta. 

The Spartans, unable to foresee that the Olynthian 
confederacy would be required in a few years as a bulwark 
against the rising power of Macedon, determined to stop 
the proceedings of the Olynthians, as being contrary to the 
. terms of the Peace. They at once sent off Eudamldas with 
t^fco thousand men ; and his brother Phcebidas followed 
soon afterwards with three thousand more. In the course 
of his march northward Phcebidas arrived at Thebes and 
encamped outside the city. There happened at this time to 
be political dissension at Thebes between the oligarchs 
under Leontiades and the democrats under Ismenias, and 
Leontiades offered to help Phcebidas to seize the citadel of 
Thebes, called the Cadmea, during a festival when it was 
left in the possession of the women, on condition that he 
helped the oligarchs to overthrow their opponents. Though 
Sparta was at peace with Thebes Phcebidas agreed ; in the 
heat of the day, when few citizens were astir, Leontiades 



260 HISTORY OF GREECE 

opened the city gates to the Spartans, who, without any 
opposition, seized the Cadmea and all the women in it. 
Great was the consternation of the Thebans, but with the 
Cadmea in the hands of the Spartans they could do nothing. 
Ismenias was seized and thrown into prison, where he was 
afterwards put to death on the charge of receiving money 
from the Persians ; three hundred of his followers fled to 
Athens, and Leontiades established an oligarchy at Thebes 
friendly to Sparta, and supported by the Spartan garrison 
in the Cadmea. Thus Thebes became a subject ally of 
Sparta. Phcebidas's action of seizing the Cadmea in time of 
peace was, of course, in flagrant violation of all the principles 
of law and right ; but, when the question was debated at 
Sparta, Agesilaus carried the day for him, by declaring 
that the only question was whether his action was beneficial 
or not to Sparta. 

The war against Olynthus lasted four years. Teleutias, 
the brother of Agesilaus, was defeated and slain with most 
of his army, the young king Agesipolis who took his place 
died of fever ; but, aided by the king of Macedonia, the 
Spartans compelled Olynthus to surrender, B.C. 379, and 
the Olynthian confederacy was broken up. 

Meanwhile the Theban exiles at Athens, the adherents 
of the murdered Ismenias, were impatiently looking for the 
day of deliverance for their down-trodden country. They 
hoped that their friends in Thebes would have effected a 
rising ; but Leontiades, with the Spartans at his back, 
was too strong for them ; he not only prevented any out- 
break at Thebes, but procured the assassination at Athens 
of the man who had succeeded Ismenias as leader of the 
patriots. At last, weary of waiting, they formed a plot 
themselves to assassinate Leontiades and his colleagues ; the 
leader of this rash enterprise was Pelopidas, a man of noble 
birth and great wealth, and of a brave and chivalrous 
character* 



SEIZURE OF THE CADMEA 261 

Pelopidas succeeded in communicating with his friends 
in Thebes without alarming the government, and obtained 
two important allies, Charon, a citizen of high standing, and 
Phyllidas, who would be of the greatest use to them, since 
he was secretary to the Polemarchs Archias and Philippus. 
Pelopidas was anxious to obtain the help of his friend 
Epaminondas, a brave and high-minded man, who after- 
wards became the greatest general and one of the greatest 
statesmen that Greece produced. But Epaminondas, 
though he hated the government, was afraid that the 
enterprise would lead to scenes of bloodshed, such as had 
occurred in Corcyra, and would not join, though Pelopidas 
assured him that no lives would be taken except those of 
the government. 

On a snowy winter's evening in December, b.c. 379, 
Pelopidas and some half a dozen comrades entered Thebes 
singly, disguised as huntsmen, without exciting any sus- 
picion, and made their way according to arrangement to 
the house of Charon, where about forty of their sympa- 
thisers secretly assembled. Here they remained in hiding 
till the next evening, on which Phyllidas had invited the 
two Polemarchs to a banquet, promising to introduce to 
them some Theban ladies of high rank. 

The evening arrived ; the Polemarchs were at Phyllidas's 
house, all was ready for the execution of the enterprise, and 
the government seemed still in complete ignorance, when a 
messenger arrived and summoned Charon to the presence of 
the Polemarch Archias. Consternation seized the whole 
party ; but there was no help for it, and Charon departed 
with the messenger. Archias had indeed received vague 
information from Athens, but he had already been drinking 
deeply, and Charon, aided by Phyllidas, easily calmed his 
fears and returned to the conspirators. In a short space of 
time a messenger arrived with a despatch, which he said 
was c serious business,' but Archias put it under his cushion 



262 HISTORY OF GREECE 

with the words l serious business to-morrow/ The despatch 
actually contained a precise account of the plot and the 
names of the conspirators. The time had now arrived for 
the introduction of the ladies, who were none other than 
conspirators disguised in female dress and long veils. The 
pretended ladies refused to come into the room until all 
the attendants had been sent out, to prevent any attempt 
at rescue ; they then sat down by their victims, and the 
moment they raised their veils easily despatched them with 
their daggers. 

Leontiades was not at the banquet, and still remained to 
be dealt with. Phyllidas conducted another party under 
Pelopidas to his house, and obtained admittance by saying 
that they brought a message from the Polemarchs. Leon- 
tiades was resting after supper, his wife spinning by his 
side ; the moment he saw the conspirators he seized his 
sword and rushed to the doorway ; he was a man of great 
bravery and strength, and killed his first assailant, but was 
himself slain by Pelopidas after a desperate hand-to-hand 
encounter. 

The conspirators then proceeded to the prison, surprised 
and slew the jailer, and freed the prisoners, whom they pro- 
vided with arms. They were now joined by Epaminondas 
and more adherents. The Spartan Harmosts in the Cadmea, 
aware that something extraordinary was taking place, were 
afraid to take any steps in the confusion of the night, and 
contented themselves with sending for help to the garrisons 
in Platsea and Thespian. When morning came the whole 
population, except a few oligarchs, ranged themselves on 
the side of Pelopidas ; an assembly of the people was held, 
which hailed the conspirators as saviours of their country, 
and put the government in the hands of Pelopidas and 
Charon, but gave them the title not of Polemarchs but 
Bceotarchs, for the Thebans now intended to become again 
the head of all Boeotia. Soon the rest of the exiles marched 



SEIZURE OF THE CADMEA 263 

in from Athens, aided by some Athenian volunteers and 
two Athenian generals ; the Spartan reinforcements from 
Thespias and Platsea were driven back, and preparations 
were made to attack the Cadmea in force ; but the Spartan 
Harmosts, with strange weakness, offered to surrender if 
allowed to retire with their troops; their terms were readily 
granted, and thus Thebes became fres again. 

The loss of Thebes roused the greatest indignation at 
Sparta ; two of the Harmosts were put to death and the 
third exiled and fined ; complaints were made to Athens 
for having given aid to the conspirators, and the Athenians 
were so anxious not to offend Sparta that they condemned 
one of the two generals to death, while the other fled into 
exile. It seemed as if Thebes would be left to fight Sparta 
single-handed. Though it was winter, an army was de- 
spatched under Cleombrotus, who had succeeded Agesipolis 
as king ; he forced the passes of Mount Cithseron, destroying 
the body of released prisoners who had been posted to guard 
them ; but, owing to his incompetency or half-heartedness, 
he accomplished nothing and soon retired, leaving part of 
his troops at Thespiae under Sphodrias to carry on the 
war. 

Sphodrias, remembering the credit given to Phcebidas for 
his treacherous seizure of the Cadmea, seems to have wished 
to emulate his example. Hearing that the Athenians had 
become careless again in their guard of the Peirseus, which 
was not surprising, considering that they were at peace, he 
formed the project of surprising it by a long night march, 
and thus winning for Sparta the most important position in 
Northern Greece. Unfortunately he miscalculated the dis- 
tance, and finding himself at daybreak still some miles from 
the Peirseus he was compelled to retreat (b.c. 378). 

The only result of this unscrupulous attempt was to pro- 
vide the Thebans with a powerful ally ; for the Athenians, 
alarmed at this fresh instance of Spartan perfidy, were 



264 HISTORY OF GREECE 

still more furious when Sphodrias was acquitted on his trial 
at Sparta by the influence of Agesilaus. They at once pre- 
pared for war, and, in addition, feeling themselves too weak 
and poor for a naval campaign without allies, they sent 
ambassadors, Timotheus, the son of Conon, and Chabrias, an 
able general, round to all the islands, inviting them to 
form a new confederacy. The few years of Spartan rule 
had so completely effaced the old hatred against Athens 
that seventy cities were soon enrolled, and the Athenians 
took care in the new arrangements to avoid the points 
which had given offence in the old Confederacy of Delos. 
Even the Thebans, by the advice of Epaminondas, enrolled 
themselves among the allies of Athens in order to obtain 
her hearty support ; and the Athenians sent a large force to 
the aid of Thebes under Chabrias. In the summer of this 
year (b.c. 378) the Spartans again invaded Bceotia, this time 
under Agesilaus himself ; the allies did not venture to 
attack him, but endeavoured to protect the country round 
Thebes by a palisade, while they continually annoyed him 
with their cavalry. At length Agesilaus forced the palisade 
and ravaged the country up to the walls of Thebes ; he 
then advanced against the main army, but found it so ably 
posted by Chabrias, and so ready to receive his onset, that 
he thought it prudent to refrain from battle. He soon 
afterwards returned to Sparta, leaving Phcebidas in com- 
mand, whom the Thebans had the satisfaction of killing in a 
skirmish. 

The next year (b.c. 377) Agesilaus repeated his invasion 
with no more success than before ; he again forced the 
palisade, but nothing but indecisive skirmishes took place, 
which only served to increase the confidence of the Thebans, 
and Agesilaus was reproached by Antalcidas, who was 
serving with him, for giving the Thebans lessons in the art 
of war. During his homeward march Agesilaus injured his 
leg so seriously that he was unable to take the field next 



SEIZURE OF THE CADMEA 265 

year (b.c. 376) ; thereupon Cleombrotus was again given 
the command. This year the allies held the passes of 
Cithseron, and Cleombrotus, unable to force them, was 
obliged to return home. The Spartans now resolved to 
attack Athens by sea, so as to overthrow the new con- 
federacy ; they sent a fleet of sixty triremes into the 
iEgean, which prevented the arrival of the corn ships, and 
so caused great distress at Athens ; but the Athenians fitted 
out a fleet of eighty triremes under Chabrias, who totally 
defeated the Spartans off the island of Naxos, only eleven of 
the ships escaping, B.C. 376). This sea victory, the first 
which Athens had won since the Peloponnesian war, firmly 
established Athens at the head of her new confederacy. 
Chabrias cruised for the rest of the year over all the 
iEgean, enrolling new members and capturing ships and 
prisoners, thus enriching the treasury, which was in great 
need of funds. 

The next year (b.c. 375) the fleet was sent round the 
Peloponnese under Timotheus, who enrolled Corey ra and 
other islands in the confederacy and defeated a new Spartan 
fleet sent against him. Distracted by this naval warfare, 
the Spartans made no further attempt to invade Bceotia, 
and the Thebans were thus able to take in hand the task 
of driving out the garrisons still left in the country, and 
won several successes, the most conspicuous of which was 
won by Pelopidas ; when marching against Orchomenus 
he was surprised by the Spartan garrison, which was 
double his small force ; when one of his men exclaimed, 
1 We have fallen into the midst of the enemy ! J he re- 
plied, 'Why not say that they have fallen into the midst 
of us ? ' And he attacked with such skill and boldness 
that the enemy were utterly routed. This victory, won 
in fair fight over a superior number of Spartans, had 
such effect that very soon the whole of Bceotia, except 
Orchomenus, was in the hands of the Thebans. They now 



266 HISTORY OF GREECE 

felt emboldened to take the offensive and invaded Phocis, 
but a large army sent by sea across the Gulf of Corinth 
under Cleornbrotus compelled them to retire. Cleombrotus 
did not venture to follow them, but remained in Phocis 
(b.c. 374). 

But the very success of the Thebans began to arouse the 
jealousy of the Athenians, who were by no means anxious 
to have a strong united Bceotia for their neighbours. They 
had refounded their naval confederacy and had nothing 
to gain by a continuation of the war ; while their fear 
of Sparta had died down owing to her ill success. A 
further grievance against Thebes was her refusal to con- 
tribute her share to the confederacy, owing, perhaps, to the 
ravages of Agesilaus. The Athenians were again in want 
of money, for the enthusiasm with which the confederacy 
had been started had by no means been kept up ; in his 
last cruise Timotheus was in such want of funds that he 
was obliged to borrow from his captains. They therefore 
made peace with Sparta and sent orders to Timotheus at 
Corcyra to return home ; Timotheus, however, in the course 
of his voyage, restored some exiles in the island of Zacynthus ; 
the Zacynthians complained to Sparta, and war broke out 
again almost immediately. 

The Spartans now attacked Athens's new ally Corcyra ; 
and were so successful that the Athenians ordered 
Timotheus to sail again to its relief. He, however, spent 
so much time in cruising among the islands collecting 
money, that the Athenians superseded him by Chabrias 
and Iphicrates. When the Athenian fleet reached Corcyra, 
they found that the Spartans had been already beaten, 
owing to the carelessness of the general, and had retreated. 
Iphicrates soon afterwards captured ten Syracusan triremes 
coming to the aid of Sparta, from which he obtained the 
much-needed funds to pay the sailors. Timotheus was 
prosecuted for his dilatory conduct, and, though acquitted, 



SEIZURE OF THE CADMEA 267 

left Athens in disgust and took service under the Persian 
government. 

About this time, the Thebans fearing that the Platreans, 
who had always been unfriendly to them, would be an 
obstacle to their domination in Bceotia, suddenly seized 
the town and expelled the inhabitants ; the unfortunate 
Plataeans, dispossessed of their homes for the third time, 
retired to Athens where they were warmly received (b.c. 
373). The Athenians at this became still more estranged 
from Thebes, and again eager for peace with Sparta ; they 
were anxious to restore the old state of things that had 
existed after the Persian wars a hundred years before, when 
Sparta was supreme on land and Athens at sea. The 
Spartans, whose coasts were suffering from the attacks of 
the Athenian fleet under Iphicrates, were also anxious for 
peace, and in b.c. 372 sent Antalcidas a second time to 
Susa to ask the Great King to enforce the peace of 387. 

In the spring of b.c. 371 the Athenians brought about a 
congress of the various states at Sparta, and a peace was 
agreed on called the Peace of Callias, from the name of one 
of the Athenian deputies, the terms of which were that all 
cities should be independent as in the Peace of Antalcidas. 
Athens signed for herself alone, and the cities of her con- 
federacy for themselves. But Epaminondas claimed to sign 
for all Bceotia just as the Theban deputies had done in the 
Peace of Antalcidas. Thereupon Agesilaus asked him 
angrily, ' Will you or will you not leave the Boeotian cities 
independent 1 J Epaminondas' s only reply was, ' Will you 
leave the Laconian towns independent ? 5 Agesilaus at once 
struck out the name of the Thebans, and the treaty was 
concluded without them. Sparta and Thebes were thus left 
face to face, and throughout the Grecian world there was no 
doubt what the issue of the war would be : a single pitched 
battle would brino- the Thebans to their senses. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

BATTLE OF LEUCTRA \ THE THEBAN SUPREMACY 

Dates. b. c. 
Battle of Leuctra. End of the Spartan Supremacy, 371 
Epaminondas marches into the Peloponnese, re- 
stores Messenia and founds Megalopolis, . . 370 
Theban Expedition into Thessaly and Macedonia, 368 
War between Spartans and Arcadians ; th£ 

'Tearless Battle/ 367 

Pelopidas taken prisoner by Alexander of Pkeraj, 366 

Chief Xames. — Epaminondas, Cleombrotus, Jason of Pherae, 
Agesilaus, Lycomedes, Pelopidas, Alexander of Pherae. 

So confident were the Spartans in their superiority to the 
Thebans that they did not wait until their whole force was 
ready to take the field. 

The army of Cleombrotus still lay in Phocis, whither it 
had been sent three years before. By the terms of the 
Peace it ought to have returned to Sparta ; but the Spar- 
tans determined to use it to crush the Thebans and ordered 
Cleombrotus to invade Bceotia. Epaminondas held the 
main road from Phocis into Bceotia, but Cleombrotus took an 
unexpected route over the southern spurs of Mount Helicon 
and advanced upon Thebes ; at Leuctra, ten miles south- 
west of Thebes, he was confronted by Epaminondas with an 
army considerably inferior in strength, though the exact 
numbers are not known. The Spartans were full of con- 
fidence owing to the skill with which Cleombrotus had out- 

2C8 



BATTLE OF LEUCTRA 



269 



generalled Epaminondas and forced his way into Boeotia, 
while despondency reigned among the Thebans ; some of 
the Bceotarchs wished to send away the women and children 
to Athens and stand a siege in Thebes, and it was with 
the greatest difficulty that Epaminondas could obtain a 
majority for fighting. Epaminondas knew that his army 
was no match for the Spartan force in numbers, but he 
trusted to his own skill for victory. It was the usual 
rule for a Greek general to draw up his hoplites in one 
long line from eight to twelve men deep, and the whole line 
on each side charged simultaneously ; but the Thebans 
used to fight in a deeper formation, a» was mentioned in 
the battle of Delium (see page 180) ; and Epaminondas, 
knowing that, ac- 
cording to the im- 
memorial Spartan 
custom, Cleom- 
brotus himself and 
the Lacedaemon- 
ians would be in 
the post of honour 
on the right, drew 
up his own left 
wing opposite to 
them in a heavy 
column no less 
than fifty deep, 
and ordered the 
rest of his army, 
who were opposite 
the allies of the 
Spartans, not to 
engage until the 
conflict on their left had been decided. At the head of his 
column he placed the ' Sacred Band,' a body of 300 picked 



Battle of Leuetra. 

A Lacedaemonians and Spartans. 

B Spartan allies. 

C Theban column. 

D Boeotians. _ 

Leuc trail 



\ 




<? 



% 



2-jo HISTORY OF GREECE 

men of noble family, bound to one another by the closest ties 
of friendship. The battle began with a cavalry engagement 
in which the Thebans as usual were victorious ; Cleombrotus 
then ordered the usual charge, and the Theban column bore 
down and burst with a terrific crash on his right wing just 
where he was stationed himself. The Spartans surprised at 
this novel form of attack resisted desperately, for it was 
lifelong disgrace for a Spartan to return home defeated ; but 
the weight of the column was irresistible, Cleombrotus fell 
mortally wounded, most of the officers were slain including 
the unfortunate Sphodrias, and the hitherto invincible 
Spartans were compelled to give way and retreat to their 
original position ; but how well they fought was shown by 
the fact that out of 700 Spartans engaged 300 fell, and over 
1000 Lacedaemonians. In the rest of the field, according to 
the plan of Epaminondas, there was hardly any fighting : 
and the allies, whose feelings towards the Spartans were 
not very friendly, when they saw them defeated, fell back 
also. The battle was over ; in a single hour the skill of 
Epaminondas had shattered the military supremacy which 
Sparta had enjoyed for centuries ; and had wrested from 
her the headship of Greece never to be regained. The effect 
of the battle throughout Greece was prodigious, it was felt 
that a new military power had arisen ; in most states the 
news of the overthrow of the Spartan tyranny was received 
with joy ; but the Athenians, who hoped to have seen the 
insolence of the Thebans chastised, were disappointed and 
gave but a cold reception to the herald who was sent with 
the news of the victory. 

The Spartans received the tidings of the defeat with their 
usual calmness ; the Ephors refused to interrupt a festival 
that was being celebrated and forbade any public mourning, 
and when the names of the dead were made known, their 
relations went about the streets with joyful countenances, 
while the relations of the survivors were covered with 



BATTLE OF LEUCTRA 271 

shame ; all the remaining troops were called out and des- 
patched to the aid of the defeated army. 

Meanwhile the Thebans at Leuc-tra had not ventured to 
attack the camp of the defeated enemy, who were still probably 
superior in numbers ; they were soon joined by Jason the able 
and unscrupulous tyrant of Pherae in Thessaly (see map p. 
286) ; he had made 1 ' himself supreme in Thessaly, and was 
aiming at playing a leading part in Greek affairs. When the 
Thebans proposed to assault the Lacedaemonian camp, Jason 
advised them to make terms with the Lacedaemonians and let 
them go, pointing out that it would be unwise to run the risk 
of a defeat after their late victory ; in reality he probably 
did not wish to see the Spartans too much weakened. The 
Lacedaemonians therefore were allowed to retire and met 
the relieving army at the Isthmus ; the whole force then 
returned home. When the survivors of the defeat reached 
Sparta, they ought, according to the law of Lycurgus, to 
have been punished with the loss of their civic rights, but 
they were so numerous in comparison with the total number 
of true Spartans, that by the advice of Agesilaus the law on 
this occasion was not enforced. 

Sparta now began to feel the effects of her defeat. All 
through the Peloponnese, in Arcadia and Achaea and at 
Corinth her allies began to revolt : her Harmosts were 
expelled, the aristocratic governments which supported 
them were overthrown, and many of the states joined 
the Athenian confederacy. Even at Argos, which was 
not aurally of Sparta, a revolution, disgraced by terrible 
bloodshed, broke out against the aristocratic government, 
and 1200 of the nobles were beaten to death by the mob, 
who had armed themselves with cudgels : whence the 
outbreak was called Skytalism (from ctkvtoXov, a cudgel). 

The severest blow came from Arcadia. It will be re- 
membered that fourteen years before (b.c. 385), the 
Spartans had forced the Mantineans to break up their 



272 



HISTORY OF GREECE 




city into villages. The Mantineans now took advantage 
of Sparta's weakness to rebuild their city, and the Spartans 
could do nothing more than 
protest. Then a Mantinean 
citizen of high rank, named 
Lycomedes, proposed that 
the different states of Ar- 
cadia should join together 
and make one strong state ; 
but there was a good deal 
of jealousy between the 
three leading cities, Manti- 
nea, Tegea, and Orchomenus 
(which must not be con- 
fused with the Orchomenus 
in Bceotia), and the two 
latter were still under 
governments friendly to 
Sparta. Accordingly Ly- THE CITIES 0F Arcadia 
comedes sent troops to Tegea, by whose aid a revolu- 
tion was effected and the government overturned. The 
Spartans were very angry at this, and sent an army into 
Arcadia under Agesilaus, whereupon the Arcadians applied 
for aid to the Athenians, and when they would not take up 
arms against the Spartans they turned to the Thebans. 

The Thebans since the battle of Leuctra had been 
strengthening their position in the north of Greece. First 
of all they had completed their supremacy in Bceotia by 
the submission of the towns of Orchomenus and Thespian ; 
by the influence of Epaminondas the Orchomenians had 
been permitted to enrol themselves in the Boeotian League 
without any punishment for having taken the part of 
Sparta against Thebes, but the Thespians were expelled 
from their town and took refuge, like the Platoeans, in 
Athens. Then the Phocians and Locrians were brought 



BATTLE OF LEUCTRA 273 

under the sway of Thebes ; and Jason of Pheroe having 
been assassinated in the summer of B.C. 370, Thebes 
reigned supreme in the north of Greece, for the Athenians 
had no land force capable of opposing her. 

When therefore the appeal for help came from the 
Arcadians, the Thebans were only too ready to grant it. 
Epaminondas, who, being one of the Bceotarchs, really 
directed the Theban policy, wished to weaken Sparta, by 
raising up hostile states on her borders in the Peloponnese : 
one of the states was to be Arcadia, the other Messenia. 
Messenia, it will be remembered, had been conquered by 
the Spartans long ago, after two desperate wars (b.c. 630) : 
most of the Messenians had been made Helots, but many 
had left the country and preserved their nationality during 
centuries of exile, and were still scattered about the Greek 
colonies ; some had been placed in Naupactus by the 
Athenians (see p. 147), only to be driven out again at the 
end of the Peloponnesian war. Epaminondas now made 
proclamation that he was about to restore the Messenians 
to their native land, and numbers flocked to his standard : 
late in the autumn of B.C. 370 he marched into the 
Peloponnese at the head of an army, said by some writers 
to have amounted to 70,000 men. He met with no 
opposition, for Agesilaus had already retreated from 
Arcadia after an ineffectual campaign. Epaminondas's 
first step was to march to the attack of Sparta itself : the 
Spartans were greatly alarmed, for they had always dis- 
dained the protection of fortifications ; but Agesilaus ordered 
the defence so skilfully that Epaminondas was unwilling to 
risk the chance of failure, and, after ravaging the Eurotas 
valley down to the sea, he retreated to Arcadia, satisfied 
with the humiliation inflicted on the proud city, whose 
women had never before beheld the camp-fires of an enemy 

He now turned his attention to the Arcadian confederacy ; 
as it was impossible, owing to mutual jealousy, to make any 

S 



274 HISTORY OF GREECE 

existing town the capital, a new city was founded in the 
south of Arcadia called Megalopolis (the great city, rj fxcyaXrj 
noXis) with walls six miles in circumference. Next the 
Messenians were restored to their country, where they were 
joined by many Helots and Periceci, and their capital, 
Messene, was founded on the hill Ithome, where they had 
so bravely resisted the Spartans- in the first Messenian 
war. Thus the Spartans lost half their territories, and saw 
a powerful state founded on their northern frontier : in 
their alarm they appealed for aid to the Athenians, who 
sent a force under Iphicrates to block the Isthmus against 
Epaminondas on his return home : but the appearance of 
the Theban force was so formidable that he contented 
himself with harassing their march. Epaminondas reached 
Thebes in the spring of B.C. 369 ; owing to his operations 
in the Peloponnese he had retained the office of Bceotarch 
some months beyond the legal time ; he now resigned it, 
and apologised for his illegal conduct in a speech describing 
all he had done to weaken and humiliate Sparta : this 
speech was so effective that he was re-elected Bceotarch with 
his friend Pelopidas, for the year 369 B.C. Messene and 
Megalopolis were not yet strong enough to stand alone ; 
so Epaminondas again raised an army to invade the 
Peloponnese. The Spartans marched to the Isthmus, where 
they were joined by the Athenians, under Chabrias, and 
the Corinthians, and attempted to hold it against the 
Thebans, just as the Thebans, Athenians, and Corinthians 
had tried to hold it in the opposite direction thirty years 
before, against the Spartans (see p. 250). Epaminondas 
surprised the part of the line held by the Spartans by an 
attack at daybreak, and forced his way through ; but he 
was unable to effect any great success, as the allies were in 
too strong a position at Corinth ; at the same time the 
Spartans were unable to interfere with the completion of 
the walls of Messene and Megalopolis. 



BATTLE OF LEUCTRA 275 

Next year (b.c. 368) no invasion of the Peloponnese took 
place : the attention of the Thebans was diverted north- 
wards to Thessaly, where Alexander of Pherse, a son-in-law 
of Jason, was following his footsteps and trying to bring the 
other Thessalian cities into subjection to him. Pelopidas 
was sent with an army against Alexander, and compelled 
him to restore freedom to the Thessalian cities. Pelopidas, 
having thus brought Thessaly under the influence of Thebes, 
marched into Macedonia. That kingdom was in great con- 
fusion ; the king Amyntas had lately died, and his eldest 
son Alexander had been slain after a reign of one year, 
by an usurper named Ptolemy, who was now ruling as 
regent. The widow of Amyntas with her two youthful 
sons, Perdiccas and Philip, of whom we shall hear a great 
deal hereafter, had put herself under the protection of the 
Athenians, who were just now very anxious to obtain the 
aid of Macedonia to recover the important colony of Amphi- 
polis, the capture of which by Brasidas had been such a blow 
to them in the Peloponnesian war (see p. 181). Pelopidas 
compelled Ptolemy to enter into alliance with Thebes, and 
to send to Thebes thirty youths of noble rank as hostages. 
Among them was the young prince Philip, whose sojourn 
at Thebes proved of great advantage to him, for he was 
able to study the splendid system of military discipline and 
drill established by Epaminondas. 

During the absence of the Thebans the war was kept up 
by the Arcadians and Messenians aided by the Argives, 
who took up the Theban side in opposition to their old foes 
the Spartans. The Arcadians, under Lycomedes, won some 
successes over the Athenians and the few other states which 
still stood by Sparta, and became so puffed up with their 
good fortune that they thought themselves invincible. 
Lycomedes exhorted them to stand up for themselves and 
not to submit any more to the dictation of the Thebans or 
any one else. They now began to quarrel with their 



276 HISTORY OF GREECE 

neighbours the Eleans about a question of territory. But 
their pride soon had a fall. Arehidainus, son of Agesilaus, 
with the Spartans and a body of Gallic mercenaries sent 
from Syracuse, inflicted such a crushing defeat on them 
that they are said to have lost 10,000 men, while not a 
single Spartan fell, and the battle was called the Tearless 
Battle (b.c. 367). Agesilaus and the senators wept with 
joy when the herald brought the news of the victory, for 
the disgrace of Leuctra was now wiped away. Nor were 
the Thebans displeased at the chastisement inflicted on the 
arrogant Arcadians, but Epaminondas judged it expedient 
to appear in the Peloponnese. He forced the Isthmus, 
which was negligently guarded, and, marching into Achaea, 
persuaded the Achaean cities to join the Theban alliance ; 
he did not, however, make any changes in the government 
of these cities, which so annoyed the Thebans that they did 
not re-elect him as Boeotarch for the next year, and sent 
Harmosts to establish democratic governments in the 
Achaean cities. But the result proved the wisdom of the 
policy of Epaminondas, for the Achaeans, offended at their 
treatment by the Thebans, drove out the Harmosts, restored 
their governments, and joined the Spartan alliance again. 

The Thebans were too much occupied in other matters to 
interfere again in Achrea. They determined to bring 
about peace and have their position as head of Greece 
recognised by means of a decree from the king of Persia. 
Pelopidas was therefore sent to Susa with colleagues from 
Elis, Arcadia, and Argos, accompanied also by counter 
embassies from Athens and Sparta. Pelopidas obtained the 
desired decree, which recognised the headship of Thebes 
and the independence of the Messenians ; but when he 
returned to Greece no state would accept the decree, not 
even the Arcadians ; Pelopidas visited state after state in vain, 
and at last came to Thessaly. Trusting to his mission as an 
ambassador, he had no escort, and Alexander treacherously 



BATTLE OF LEUCTRA 277 

seized him and threw him into prison (b.c. 366). The 
Thebans at once sent an army to rescue him, in which 
Epaminondas, no longer Bceota^ch, was serving in the 
ranks. But Alexander, reinforced by some Athenians, 
forced them to retreat, and the retreat was conducted so 
unskilfully that the soldiers compelled Epaminondas to take 
the command, and he brought back the army safely. 
Afterwards a second expedition was sent under Epaminon- 
das ; and Alexander was forced to give his prisoner up ; 
but by these events Thebes lost much of her influence in 
Thessaly, and Alexander of Pherse again became powerful. 
But in a few years (b.c. 363) Pelopidas again invaded 
Thessaly, and, being reinforced by many Thessalians, 
attacked Alexander, who had a large force of mercenaries. 
After an obstinate fight, Pelopidas was on the point of 
victory, when he caught sight of the hated despot himself ; 
burning for revenge, he charged rashly forward to slay him, 
but was himself killed by his bodyguard. When the death 
of Pelopidas was known, his troops charged so fiercely that 
Alexander's defeat was soon complete. The Thebans sent 
fresh generals and additional troops, who speedily con- 
quered Alexander ; he was allowed to retain his own. city 
of Pherae, but was compelled to swear allegiance to Thebes, 
and was soon afterwards assassinated. Thus the whole of 
Thessaly passed under the control of Thebes ; but the 
death of Pelopidas, the liberator of the Thebans and of 
the Thessalians, was deeply mourned by both peoples. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

BATTLE OF MANTINEA. END OF THE THEBAN SUPREMACY 

Dates. B.C. 

Battle of Olympia between Arcadians and Eleans, 364 

Naval cruise of Epaminondas, .... 363 

Battle of Mantinea : Death of Epaminondas, . 362 

The Athenians, chafing at the great power of Thebes on 
land, had meanwhile turned their attention to the sea. 
Timotheus, who had returned to the service of his native 
land, conquered Samos from the Persians (b.c. 365), and 
also acquired considerable territory in the Thracian Cher- 
sonese, whither Athenian settlers were sent. He then 
made an alliance with Perdiccas, who had become king 
of Macedonia after overthrowing the regent Ptolemy ; and 
with his aid attacked and took several Chalcidian cities ; 
but his attack on Amphipolis, which the Athenians were 
so anxious to recover, was a failure. The citizens of 
Amphipolis appealed to Perdiccas for aid against the 
Athenians, and, although their ally, he put a Macedonian 
garrison into it. 

Epaminondas, alarmed at the growth of the Athenian 
power in the iEgean, persuaded the Thebans to build a 
large fleet, at the head of which he suddenly appeared in 
the iEgean, b.c. 363. He did not, however, encounter the 
Athenian fleet, and does not seem to have done anything 
278 



BATTLE OF MANTINEA 279 

but make a display of Theban power. Epaminondas 
never repeated his cruise, for in the following year he found 
himself obliged to make an expedition into the Peloponnese 
owing to serious news from Arcadia. In B.C. 365 the war 
between Elis and Arcadia had blazed up again. The 
Thebans did not interfere, but this time the Arcadians 
proved capable of holding their own ; they defeated the 
Eleans and repulsed a Spartan invasion under Archidamus. 
The next year, B.C. 364, was the year of the Olympic 
festival ; and the Pisatans thought the present a good 
opportunity for recovering the presidency of the games, of 
which they had long ago been deprived by the Eleans (see p. 
12); so they appealed to the Arcadians, who sent an army 
and began to hold the festival under their presidency. In 
the midst of the games an army of Eleans and Achseans 
appeared ; but the Arcadians and Pisatans, though worsted 
at first, eventually compelled them to retire, and continued 
the celebration of the festival. The Battle of Olympia 
caused great indignation against the Arcadians ; for the 
Olympic Games were a religious and national institution 
with which the quarrels of states should never interfere. 
The indignation was increased when the Arcadians took 
some of the treasure from the temple at Olympia to pay 
their soldiers. The Arcadians themselves began to feel that 
they had been guilty of great impiety, and the Mantineans, 
who had always been jealous of Tegea and Megalopolis, and 
were beginning to think of allying themselves with their 
old enemies the Spartans, took the matter up strongly, and 
after much discussion in the Arcadian assembly they carried 
the day. Peace was made with the Eleans and the presi- 
dency of the games was restored to them (b.c. 362). 

Deputies from all the towns of Arcadia came to Tegea to 
ratify the peace, but in the evening those who were 
suspected of being on the Mantinean side were seized by 
the Theban Harmost of the town. So loud were the 



28o HISTORY OF GREECE 

protests from Mantinea and the other towns that the 
Harniost released the prisoners, declaring as an excuse 
for his action that he suspected a plot to admit a Spartan 
army into the city. However, the Mantinean party sent 
envoys to Thebes complaining of his conduct. Epaininondas 
was at this time much annoyed at the ingratitude of the 
Arcadians : they owed their present freedom and power to 
Thebes, and yet they had been setting themselves up as 
independent of her, and had made peace with Elis with- 
out consulting her, while the Mantinean party were 
deserting her for her enemy Sparta. He therefore sup- 
ported the action of the Harmost, and at the head of a 
large army, collected from all the Theban allies in the north 
of Greece, marched into the Peloponnese to re-establish the 
power of Thebes there (b.c. 362). Passing the Isthmus, 
now undefended, he reached Tegea, where he was joined 
by the Argives, Messenians, and the Theban party of the 
Arcadians ; meanwhile the Eleans, Achaeans, and the 
Mantinean party of the Arcadians were assembled at 
Mantinea. Agesilaus was preparing to take the field with 
the Spartan army, and a contingent of Athenian infantry 
and cavalry was expected. 

Epaininondas at Tegea was on the direct road from 
Mantinea to Sparta, a position which gave him great 
advantage. He first tried to crush the Mantinean force 
before the arrival of Agesilaus, but found them too strongly 
posted : then, hearing that Agesilaus was on the march 
towards Mantinea by a circuitous route to the west of Tegea, 
he determined to surprise Sparta in its undefended state. 
Marching by night from Tegea, a distance of thirty-five 
miles, he reached the town in early morning, only to be 
foiled again ; for Agesilaus, informed of his march by a 
Cretan runner, hurried back with part of his forces and 
repulsed the attack. On his return to Tegea, Epaminondas 
sent on his cavalry to surprise Mantinea, for the Mantineans 



BATTLE OF MANTINEA 281 

had gone to the aid of the Spartans. But the Athenian 
cavalry had just arrived at Mantinea, and, wearied though 
they were, they attacked and defeated the Theban and 
Thessalian cavalry, who, though superior in numbers, were 
still more exhausted by their long inarches. Soon after- 
wards, Agesilaus reached Mantinea, and thus the allied 
army was united. The skilful tactics of Epaminondas had 
failed, and there was nothing for it but to fight a pitched 
battle ; and the allies, though inferior in numbers, — 22,000 
against 33,000, according to one account, — were no less 
eager for the fray. The road from Tegea to Mantinea, ten 
miles in length, runs through a plain bordered by hills, 
which four miles from Mantinea approach closer to another, 
and form a pass about a mile in breadth. Here, when the 
army of Epaminondas was seen on the march from Tegea, 
the allied forces were posted ; but Epaminondas, instead of 
advancing straight against them, swerved and marched 
along the slope of the hill, and, as soon as he approached 
their right flank, halted. As it was late in the day, the 
confederates imagined that he did not intend to fight, and 
began to leave their ranks ; but as soon as his dispositions 
were completed the Theban army advanced to the charge, 
and the allies hurriedly re-formed to meet them. The 
tactics of Epaminondas were the same as at Leuctra : on 
his left were the Boeotians in the heavy column fifty deep, 
while the Arcadians, Messenians, and Argives, forming the 
centre and left, were slightly thrown back ; the cavalry 
were on the left of the Boeotians, where the main shock of 
the battle was to be. In the allied army, the Spartans and 
Arcadians were on the right, the Athenians on the left, the 
Achseans and Eleans in the centre. 

As at Leuctra, the Boeotian column crashed its way 
through the Spartan and Arcadian line like the prow of a 
trireme, as Xenophon describes it, in spite of the most 
gallant resistance ; the cavalry were also victorious, and the 



282 HISTORY OF GREECE 

whole allied army were soon in disordered retreat towards 
Mantinea, when suddenly the pursuit stopped. For 
Epaminondas himself had fallen, pierced in the breast by a 
spear ; and the terrible news of their great general's fall 
paralysed the troops with grief. He was carried out of the 
battle, and, having learned that his shield was safe and the 
victory won, he gave as a last advice to his countrymen 
that they should make peace, for he knew that he left no 
successor capable of carrying on his work. 

Thus died the great Theban, and perhaps the greatest of 
all Greek generals and statesmen. The Thebans followed 
his advice and made peace, by which things were to remain 
as they were ; this peace was accepted by all the states 
except Sparta, which still obstinately refused to recognise 
the independence of Messenia, But the Spartans were now 
so weak that their opposition was disregarded : they still 
continued their efforts to break up the Arcadian confederacy, 
but the Mantinean party had been hopelessly ruined by the 
battle of Mantinea, and the despatch of a small Theban 
force next year (b.c. 361) re-established Megalopolis for 
the present as the head of a united Arcadia. 

The year after the death of Epaminondas, his great rival 
Agesilaus passed away. Disgusted at the humiliation of 
his country, whose armies he had led to victory in the 
height of her power, he left Sparta with one thousand 
hoplites to aid the Egyptians in their revolt against Persia : 
as usual, he was successful in his military operations, but 
no great result followed. He was returning home, when he 
died near Cyrene. In spite of all his great qualities, the 
reign of the lame king had brought disaster on Sparta, 
according to the prophecy : and one cause of the disaster 
was his obstinate hostility to the Thebans. 



CHAPTER XXXV 



PHILIP OF MACEDON 



Dates. B.C. 

Accession of Philip of Macedon, . . . 359 

Philip takes Amphipolis, ..... 358 

Social War between Athens and her Allies, . . 357-355 

Chief Names. — Philip, Chabrias, Iphicrates, Timotheus. 

Had Epaminondas lived and completed the victory of 
Mantinea, he might possibly have been able to found the 
headship of Thebes on so secure a basis that it would 
have endured after him. But, as he foresaw, his work 
was incomplete, he left no successor to carry it on, and 
Thebes, deprived of its skilful helmsman, soon sank back 
again into the position of an ordinary state. The only 
lasting result, therefore, of the career of Epaminondas was 
the overthrow of the Spartan supremacy without leaving 
anything in its place. 

Selfish and oppressive as the headship of Sparta had 
been, it would still have been a rallying point for Greece 
against foreign aggression. But no one in Greece had any 
fear of a foreign aggressor : the only quarter from which an 
invader seemed possible was Persia, and the utter weakness 
of the Persian Empire was a byword among the Greeks. 
So each state as it rose to power was at once the mark for 
the jealous attacks of its neighbours. Athens was vin- 
dictively pursued to its fall by Sparta and. Thebes. Thebes 

283 



284 HISTORY OF GREECE 

and Athens then united against Sparta, and lastly, Athens 
and Sparta united against Thebes. All three states had 
had their day ; now there was not one but two leading 
states, Thebes fairly powerful on land, and Athens fairly 
powerful on sea, bitterly hostile to one another. Athens 
too, though she had regained much of her old power, had 
lost that spirit of enterprise which she had shown in the 
days of her greatness. It was at this time, when the 
vitality of Greece had been fatally sapped by the long 
internecine struggles, and when the headship was divided 
between two jealous rivals, that the foreign aggressor ap- 
peared in a quarter quite unsuspected. 

This foreign aggressor was Philip, the young prince of 
Macedon, whom we heard of as having been sent as hostage 
to Thebes (see p. 275). The kingdom of Macedon has 
been mentioned from time to time in these pages ; but it 
will be useful to recapitulate a few leading facts concerning 
it. The Macedonians dwelt in the north-east of Greece, in 
the mountain valleys of the Haliacmon and Axius, and the 
plain at the mouths of those rivers where they flow into the 
Thermaic Gulf. In race they formed a link between the true 
Hellenes and the barbarians (see p. 5). From time im- 
memorial they had been ruled by a royal family, whose claim 
to be regarded as Hellenes had been admitted by the Greeks, 
though Demosthenes, the great Athenian orator, reviled 
Philip in one of his speeches as a mere barbarian. These 
kings of Macedon gradually welded the different tribes of 
the Macedonians into a compact kingdom, but little notice 
was taken of them in the Greek world ; any one who in 
B.C. 360 suggested that there was any danger to Greece 
from that quarter would have been scouted as a madman. 
Of the kings of Macedon mention has been made of 
Alexander, who submitted to Xerxes, but did his best 
to befriend the Greeks (see p. 116), of Perdiccas, who at 
the time of the Peloponnesian war played fast and loose 



PHILIP OF MACEDON 285 

with the Athenians and the Spartan Brasidas, and of 
Amyntas, the father of Philip, for whose benefit the 
Spartans conquered the Olynthian Confederacy, B.C. 383. 
The more recent history of Macedon has lately been narrated 
in connection with Thebes and Athens to the point where 
Philip returned from his sojourn at Thebes, his brother 
Perdiccas being now king. Philip was eighteen years of 
age, and was placed by Perdiccas over one of the districts 
of Macedonia, where he began to organise and drill a small 
army after the model he had seen at Thebes. 

In B.C. 359 Perdiccas died, and no less than five 
claimants to the throne appeared, the strongest of whom, 
Argasus, was defended by the Athenians, while the Illyrians 
and other barbarians were threatening the frontiers. Philip 
became regent for the young son of Perdiccas, but soon 
seized the throne himself, being supported by the strongest 
party in the country. By various means, bribery and 
murder, he rid himself of most of the pretenders. Argseus 
alone remained ; Philip detached the Athenians from him 
by making peace with them, and withdrawing the 
Macedonian garrison from Amphipolis ; he then defeated 
him and put him to death. Finally, he cleared the frontiers 
of the barbarians, totally defeating the Illyrians in a great 
battle. 

Philip was now securely seated on the throne of Macedon. 
Skilled in all physical prowess, handsome in appearance, 
and of winning manner, he gained the complete loyalty of 
his subjects, and was absolute master of Macedon and all 
its resources. Ambitious and unscrupulous, he saw in the 
divided and exhausted state of Greece the opportunity of 
raising himself to a leading position, and determined to take 
advantage of it. The victories of Epaminondas had shown 
him what a skilful general could do with a well- drilled 
army ; starting, therefore, with the force he had already 
raised in his province, ho formed a large standing army ; 



286 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



he was not content with the arms and drill borrowed from 
the Thebans, but he introduced many improvements of his 
own, until he at length produced the famous Macedonian 
Phalanx, which proved invincible against all foes until it 
met its match in the Konian Legion. In the Macedonian 
Phalanx (often called simply 'the Phalanx, 5 although the 
name properly belongs to the ordinary Greek formation), 




MACEDONIA AT PHILIP'S ACCESSION 

the men were drawn up twenty-five deep, and armed with 
an enormous spear called the ' sarissa, 3 twenty-five feet long, 
five spear-points projecting in front of the front rank. 

East, north, and west of Macedonia dwelt barbarian 
tribes, Thracians, Scythians, and Illyrians, easy for Philip 



PHILIP OF MACEDON 287 

to conquer with his disciplined army. To the south was 
Thessaly, whose distracted condition, owing to the decline 
of the Theban power, would afford an easy excuse for an 
invader. But on the eastern sea-coast lay formidable 
obstacles in Philip's path : the Olynthian Confederacy was 
again recovering strength after its overthrow by Sparta 
twenty years before (see p. 259) ; Amphipolis, from which 
he had lately in his dire straits withdrawn the Macedonian 
garrison, blocked the coast-road eastward ; and, most 
dangerous foe of all, Athens, with her colonies on the 
Macedonian coast and her naval power, was also to be 
reckoned with. Fortunately for Philip, disunion reigned 
among his foes. Athens was jealous of the rising power of 
the Olynthians, and the Olynthians, as well as Athens, were 
eager to obtain Amphipolis ; neither of them had as yet 
an inkling that there was any danger in this young half- 
barbarian king of Macedonia. Philip thoroughly under- 
stood the situation and played his game with wonderful 
skill : he besieged Amphipolis (b.c. 358), and prevented the 
Athenians from sending troops to its aid, by secretly 
promising to hand it over when taken in exchange for the 
unimportant Athenian colony Pydna ; and the Athenians, 
in their anxiety to recover Amphipolis, actually believed 
him. Having taken Amphipolis, Philip proceeded to take 
Pydna without resistance ; and then, on the ground that 
Athens had not given him Pydna, he refused to hand over 
Amphipolis. Next he attacked and took Potidsea from 
the Athenians, and, by handing it over to the Olynthians, 
secured their friendship until he should be in a position to 
attack them, and widened the breach between them and 
Athens. 

Disgusted as they were at the duplicity of Philip and 
their own simple-mindedness which had lost them their 
chance of regaining Amphipolis, the Athenians were for the 
time incapable of taking any steps, owing to the revolt 



288 HISTORY OF GREECE 

of their allies, headed by Rhodes, Byzantium, and Chios 
(b.c. 357). This revolt, known as the Social War, was 
caused by the exactions of the Athenian commanders, 
always, as we have seen, in want of money to pay their 
mercenary troops, and by the arbitrary conduct of Athens in 
planting Athenian cleruchs (settlers) in Samos, in distinct 
violation of her promise given on the formation of the 
league. Chabrias was sent against Chios with a large fleet, 
but in attempting a landing he was slain, and Iris force 
repulsed. The allies were now supreme at sea, and 
attacked Samos ; and the Athenians sent a fresh fleet under 
Chares, Iphicrates, and Timotheus against Byzantium. The 
fleets met in the Hellespont ; Iphicrates and Timotheus 
for some reason were against fighting, but Chares insisted 
on engaging by himself, and was naturally repulsed. 
Thereupon, he accused Iphicrates and Timotheus at Athens 
of receiving bribes from the enemy. Iphicrates was 
acquitted, but never again employed, while Timotheus was 
fined one hundred talents ; he retired from Athens, and 
died soon afterwards (b.c. 354). Chares continued the war, 
but being, as usual, in want of funds, he took service with 
a Persian satrap, in revolt against the king of Persia, 
and won a great victory for him. Thereupon, the king at 
once took measures to assist the allies, and the Athenians 
in alarm made peace (b.c. 355), and granted them their 
freedom, the consequence of which to Rhodes was that, 
two years later, it was conquered by the Persians. Thus 
the fatal inability of powerful Greek states to govern fairly, 
and of the smaller states to submit to government, deprived 
Athens of her confederacy at a critical point of Greek 
history, when it was needed against the Macedonian 
aggressor, and at the same time cost her her three best 
generals. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

PHILIP AND GREECE : THE SECOND SACRED WAR 

Dates. B.C. 

Beginning of the Second Sacred War, . . , 357 

The Phocians invade Thessaly, , . • • 353 
Philip drives the Phocians out of Thessaly, but is 

stopped at Thermopylae by the Athenians, . 352 

The Olynthian War, 350-348 

Peace of Philocrates : Conquest of the Phocians. 

End of the Second Sacred War, ... 346 

Chief Names. — Philip, Onomarchus, Phayllus, Demosthenes, 
iEschines, Phocion. 

During the progress of this unfortunate war, grave events 
happened in Northern Greece, which, in the end, gave Philip 
his long, long-coveted opportunity of interfering in Greece 
itself. 

Mention has been made in the beginning of this history 
of the ancient religious council called the Amphictyonic 
Council (see p. 21) which met at Delphi to protect the 
interests of its members and of the god. Its work in 
causing the First Sacred War (b.c 595), which resulted 
in the destruction of the Phocian town of Cirrha, has been 
mentioned ; since then, although its meetings were held, it 
had ceased to have any influence and had become quite 
antiquated. At this time, however, it had fallen into the 
power of the Thebans ; and the Thebans, chafing at their 
loss of authority since the death of Epaminondas, took the 

T 



2Q0 HISTORY OF GREECE 

short-sighted step of employing it to recover that authority. 
They had already, soon after the battle of Leuctra, obtained 
from it a decree, fining the Spartans for seizing the Cadmea 
in peace ; they now obtained a fresh decree, imposing a 
heavy fine on the Phocians for cultivating the accursed 
territory of Cirrha. This, of course, was a mere pretence, 
for the First Sacred War had long been forgotten ; the real 
offence of the Phocians was that they had renounced their 
allegiance to Thebes since the battle of Mantinea. The 
Phocians had long had a quarrel with the Delphians, for, 
Delphi being in Phocis, they claimed to control it, but the 
Delphians, .being Dorians, had always resisted the claim. 
Unable to pay *the fine -now imposed, and threatened in 
consequence with the loss of their country, they took the 
desperate advice of Philomelus, a rich and prominent 
citizen, and boldly seized Delphi itself (b.c. 357). Philomelus 
visited Athens and Sparta, and obtained promises of aid, 
but all the other members of the Amphictyonic League 
were against him. However, he raised a mercenary force 
with which he severely defeated the Locrians in their 
attempt to recover Delphi. But his foes were gathering 
round him ; the Thebans now took the field ; and 
Philomelus, sorely against his will, began to appropriate 
the treasures of the Temple in order to hire more 
mercenaries, an act regarded by the Greeks as wicked 
sacrilege. After some more successes, however, Philomelus 
was defeated and slain by the Thebans (b.c. 355) j but his 
place was taken by an able and unscrupulous leader, 
named Onomarchus, who plundered the 'Temple recklessly 
and raised so large a force of mercenaries, that even the 
Thebans, whose weakness at this time seems unaccountable, 
were no match for him. He conquered the Locrians, 
seized Thermopylae, and even invaded Bceotia. 

Philip, since he has last been mentioned, had been 
extending his power in Thrace, while the Athenians were 



PHILIP AND GREECE 291 

occupied by the Social War. The conquest of Amphipolis 
had given him the silver mines of Mount Pangaeus, from 
which he derived a large revenue ; and he had founded the 
afterwards famous town of Philippi in the neighbourhood. 
He had also taken Methone, the last Athenian possession 
on the Macedonian coast. He now turned his attention to 
Thessaly, and had no difficulty in obtaining a footing in 
the country ; for the new tyrant of Pherse, Lycophron, 
was trying to tread in the footsteps of Jason and 
Alexander, and Philip was entreated by the Thessalian 
nobles to help them against him. This he promptly did, 
whereupon Lycophron, in his turn, appealed to Onom- 
archus. Onomarchus came, beat Philip in two battles, 
and drove him out of Thessaly (b.c. 353). But next 
year, Philip, having reorganised his army, again entered 
Thessaly and totally defeated Lycophron and Onomarchus. 
Onomarchus was slain, and Lycophron fled to Phene, 
where he was besieged till he surrendered, and retired 
with his mercenaries to Phocis (b.c. 352). 

Thus Philip not only won Thessaly, but also stood for- 
ward as the champion of the Amphictyonic Council and 
the outraged god in the place of the feeble Thebans. The 
surrender of Pagasae, the port of Phera?, gave him a con- 
venient harbour for harassing the Athenian commerce ; 
the Athenians voted an expedition to save Pagasae, but, 
as so often, it started too late. He now pushed on to 
complete the conquest of the Phocians whose leader was 
now Phayllus ; they held the pass of Thermopylae, but 
had not recovered from their defeat, and so appealed to 
Athens. Recognising the imminence of the danger, the 
Athenians made no delay, they sent a fleet and troops, and 
Philip retired baffled. Phayllus continued the struggle 
against the Locrians and Thebans : all the money at Delphi 
had now been used up, and he was obliged to lay violent 
hands on the splendid votive offerings presented at various 



292 HISTORY OF GREECE 

times to the oracle by kings and states. For a time the 
theatre of war was transferred to the Peloponnese, owing to 
an attack made by Sparta on her old enemy Megalopolis ; 
battles were fought with various success, but no decisive 
result, between the Thebans and Spartans ; in the end 
Sparta made peace and acknowledged the independence of 
Megalopolis (b.c. 351). 

Meanwhile, Philip was again pushing on his conquests 
in Thrace in a way that seriously threatened the Athenian 
possessions on the Chersonese. This so alarmed the 
Athenians that a large expedition was prepared under 
Charidemus, a mercenary leader of great reputation, but 
little real performance. But a false report of Philip's 
death caused the -expedition to be abandoned. It was 
about this time that the great Athenian orator, Demos- 
thenes, began to come prominently forward as a speaker 
in the Ecclesia ; he alone of all the Athenians saw the 
real danger which threatened not Athens alone, but 
all Greece, from Philip ; he saw, too, that the disin- 
clination of the Athenians to serve in person, which 
caused heavy expense and delay in hiring mercen- 
aries, put them at a great disadvantage against Philip, 
absolute master of a well-trained standing army, and all 
the resources of Macedon. In a series of speeches, which 
have come down to us as the finest specimens of Greek 
oratory, he exhorted his countrymen to stop Philip's 
progress at all costs, by prompt action, and especially by 
serving in the army themselves as in old days. He 
continually reminds them of the energy and patriotism 
shown by their ancestors in the Persian and Peloponnesian 
wars. But the words of the young speaker fell for the 
most part on deaf ears, and produced but little result. His 
chief opponent was Phocion, a brave soldier and honest 
statesman, who affected Spartan ways, especially in brevity 
of speech. 



PHILIP AND GREECE 293 

From Thrace, Philip turned his arms against the 
Olynthian Confederacy (b.c. 350), having spared it until 
he felt sufficiently strong to crush it entirely. An excuse 
for the war was the conduct of Olynthus in receiving a 
half-brother of Philip who was exiled from Macedonia. 
The Athenians, who, from fear of Philip, had some time 
previously made up their quarrel with Olynthus, sent help 
after a time, mercenaries as usual, under Charidemus ; 
this aid was sufficient to prevent Philip from gaining any 
great success. While engaged in her attempt to protect 
Olynthus, Athens found herself called upon to deal with 
a revolt in Eubcea, stirred up apparently by Philip. A 
force of Athenians was sent across, under Phocion, won a 
considerable victory over the rebels, but after that the 
Athenians could effect nothing more, and gradually, in 
course of time, the island seems to have passed into the 
power of Philip. 

In spite of the Eubcean rebellion, fresh aid, partly 
citizens, was sent to Olynthus, though the strain on the 
resources of Athens was almost more than she could bear. 
On one occasion cheering news of a victory was brought, 
but in b.c. 348 came the terrible tidings that Olynthus 
had fallen, betrayed, according to Demosthenes, by 
traitorous citizens, after the thirty other cities of the 
confederacy had been taken one by one. All the cities 
of this once flourishing confederacy were utterly destroyed, 
and the surviving inhabitants were sold into slavery ; trains 
of wretched Olynthian captives were a common sight in 
Greece at that time, and excited the deepest pity. At 
Athens the consternation was great, not only at the fate 
of Olynthus, but also because many Athenian citizens were 
now prisoners in the hands of Philip. The first thought of 
the Athenians was to arouse a general crusade against 
Philip ; and ambassadors were sent to the different states 
to discover their sentiments, but the report brought back 



294 HISTORY OF GREECE 

by the ambassadors was so discouraging that the Athenians 
in despair, and unable, from want of funds, to continue the 
war, began to think of peace. This feeling was increased 
by the events in Phocis. Phayllus had died (b.c. 350) and 
had been succeeded by the fourth and last leader, Phalsecus, 
son of Onomarchus ; the Temple treasure was coming to 
an end and the Phocians were quarrelling among themselves. 
Phalaecus was accused of misappropriating the treasure and 
deposed, but he took post at Thermopylae with ten thousand 
mercenaries. In spite of these dissensions, the Thebans 
were still unable to bring the war to a close, and (b.c. 347) 
took the fatal step of appealing to Philip to intervene. A 
report was spread that Philip was marching on Thermopylae, 
and the Phocians implored the Athenians for aid ; but 
Phalaecus refused to allow them to occupy Thermopylae, 
as they had done five years previously. This reduced the 
Athenians to despair ; accordingly a proposal to send 
ambassadors to Philip, made in the Ecclesia by a citizen 
named Philocrates, was carried. Ten ambassadors were 
sent, including Philocrates, Demosthenes, and iEschmes, a 
rival orator to Demosthenes. (December, 347.) 

After some wandering the envoys found Philip at his 
capital, Pella ; in their interviews with him he greatly 
impressed them (except apparently Demosthenes) by his 
royal bearing and courteous geniality ; iEschines certainly 
was henceforward his warm partisan. In the spring of 
b.c. 346 they brought back proposals for a peace between 
Philip and his allies, and Athens and her allies, with the 
exception of the Phocians. After a debate in the Ecclesia, 
the terms of the peace (known as the Peace of Philocrates) 
were voted, except the exclusion of the Phocians ; but 
Philip's ambassadors on their arrival insisted on this point. 
iEschines and his friends persuaded the Athenians to yield 
by assuring them that Philip only wished to exclude the 
Phocians to please his present allies, the Thebans and 



PHILIP AND GREECE 295 

Thessalians, and that having obtained the alliance of 
Athens, he would help the Phocians against the Thebans ; 
moreover, if they refused Philip's terms, they must prepare 
for war. The unfortunate Athenians tried to persuade 
themselves that iEschines was speaking the truth, and took 
the oath to observe the treaty excluding the Phocians, and 
not even Demosthenes seems to have protested. 

Then the same ten ambassadors were ordered to ad- 
minister the oath to Philip. Philip was now in Thrace 
fighting against Cersobleptes, an ally of Athens, and their 
neighbour in the Chersonese. But, though' it was important 
to reach him as soon as possible and stop his operations 
against Cersobleptes, the ambassadors did not even start 
from Athens until forced to do so by a decree proposed by 
Demosthenes, and then went slowly, not to Thrace, but Pella, 
and waited there till Philip returned, bringing the conquered 
Cersobleptes with him as prisoner. Even then Philip did 
not take the oath, but marched southwards towards Greece, 
accompanied by the ambassadors both from Athens and from 
other states, all of whom were trying to win him over to 
their side. At Pherae he at length took the oath to the 
peace ; and then, showing his true colours, marched against 
Thermopylae. Phalsecus, despairing of help from Athens, 
without whose ships he could not hold the pass, surrendered 
on condition of being allowed to depart with his mercenaries. 
Phocis lay helpless at the conqueror's feet, and submitted 
unconditionally. 

The Second Sacred War was ended ; but it ended by 
making Macedon the most powerful state in Greece. 
Philip celebrated a solemn thanksgiving with the Thebans 
for his success, which iEschines is said to have attended. 
Then a meeting of the Amphictyonic Council was held, 
and punishment was meted out to the Phocians : all 
the towns were destroyed, and the inhabitants con- 
demned to dwell in villages ; a yearly tribute was laid 



296 HISTORY OF GREECE 

upon the land to repay the Temple for the stolen treasure, 
and all those concerned in the desecration were declared 
accursed, and fled into exile, accompanied by most of the 
upper classes. The Phocians were also deprived of their 
vote in the Council, which was given to Philip ; and, 
when a few months later the Pythian Games were held, 
he was named one of the Presidents. 

Great was the dismay of the Athenians when they found 
how they had been tricked. Fearing an attack from Philip, 
they put the city in a state of defence ; but Philip did not 
feel strong enough yet for the struggle with the Athenians, 
and sent them a friendly letter, and Demosthenes, knowing 
the hopelessness of their position, advised a pacific policy. 
But the Athenians vented their rage on Philocrates, the 
author of the unfortunate Peace ; he went into exile and 
was condemned in his absence. A few years afterwards 
Demosthenes prosecuted iEschines in a speech called ' The 
False Embassy i {irepX ttjs TrapaTrpeafieLas) but without 
success. The speech with iEschines's reply has come down 
to us, and it is from them that we chiefly learn the facts 
of this period. 



CHAPTEE XXXVII 



THIRD SACRED WAR : CH^ERONEA : END OF GREEK FREEDOM 

Dates. B.C. 

Renewal of War between Philip and Athens, . 340 
Third Sacred War. Philip seizes Elatea : Alliance 

between Thebes and Athens, .... 339 
Battle of Chseronea. Philip acknowledged head 

of Greece, 338 

Murder of Philip : Accession of Alexander, . . 336 

Revolt and Destruction of Thebes, . . . 335 

Alexander invades Persia, 334 

Chief Names. — Philip, ^Eschines, Demosthenes, 
Olympias, Alexander. 

Satisfied for the present with the position he had gained 
in Greece, Philip returned to Macedonia, leaving a garrison 
in Thermopylae to keep the gate of Greece in his hands. 
But peace between him and Athens could not last long. 
He again plunged into wars of aggression in Thrace, which 
naturally brought him into conflict with the Athenian in- 
terests in the Chersonese ; and the Athenians in their state 
of irritation, and encouraged by the renewed harangues of 
Demosthenes, were not disposed to tamely submit. The 
first actual cause of quarrel was the little unimportant 
island of Halonnesus, in the middle of the ^Egean, which 
Philip seized, to rid himself of a gang of pirates who made 
it their headquarters. The Athenians claimed it as theirs ; 
and much diplomatic correspondence ensued, but with no 

297 



298 HISTORY OF GREECE 

result (b.c. 343). Then followed fighting in Euboea, where 
the Athenian party rose against the Macedonians, and,' 
aided by an Athenian force under Phocion, drove them 
from the island, and even attacked Philip's port, Pagasae, 
and captured a number of merchantmen (b.c. 341). Finally, 
Philip's operations against the Thracian princes, near the 
Chersonese, brought him into collision with Diopeithes, the 
Athenian general there ; and Philip sent an angry letter of 
remonstrance to Athens. Such a state of things could not 
continue, and in B.C. 340 both Philip and the Athenians 
formally declared war. Demosthenes, at this time, was 
most active in his opposition to Philip ; he went on an em- 
bassy to the Peloponnese to form a league against him, but 
the Peloponnesian states persisted in regarding Philip as 
their protector against Sparta, and would not listen to him. 
He then sailed to the Propontis and persuaded Byzantium, 
the successful rebel of the Social War, and its neighbour, 
Perinthus, to form an alliance with Athens ; for Philip's 
victorious arms had reached so near the Propontis as to 
endanger the route of the Athenian corn ships from the 
Euxine. Philip now attacked Perinthus with a large 
army ; but the Perinthians held out bravely, aided by 
the Byzantines, till the arrival of an Athenian force 
under Chares forced him to raise the siege. He then 
made an attempt to surprise Byzantium, and very nearly 
succeeded, but a larger Athenian armament under Phocion, 
with contingents from Chios and Rhodes, former mem- 
bers of the Athenian league, arrived in the autumn of 
b.c. 340, and at length Philip was compelled to abandon 
the siege, and to retire altogether from the Propontis. 
Thus the war opened with the distinct success of Athens ; 
and Demosthenes was thanked by the assemblies of Athens, 
Byzantium, and Perinthus, and voted a crown for his exer- 
tions in defeating Philip, and securing the corn route. 
Just when the prospect looked so cheering for Athens, 



THIRD SACRED WAR: CH&RONEA 



299 



the unfortunate Amphictyonic Council, by the action of 
iEschines, who was either guilty of utter blindness or was 
deliberately playing into Philip's hands, ruined everything. 
iEschines was Athenian delegate at the spring meeting of 
the Council in B.C. 339 ; according to his own account 
the Locrian deputy attacked Athens with reference to some 
shields she had dedicated in honour of the battle of Plat sea, 
which naturally were distasteful to the Thebans. Irritated 
by this attack, and by the rudeness of the Locrian, he 
lost control of himself, and pointing to the rich plain of 
Cirrha, which all could see from the lofty height of Delphi, 
denounced the Locrians of Amphissa for having for 
many years past cultivated it in defiance of the curse 
pronounced at the end of the First Sacred War, two 




THE CAMPAIGN OF CHAEROXEA 

hundred and fifty years before (see p. 21). The speech 
roused the fury of the Council. Next day, with the popu- 
lation of Delphi, they marched out against Cirrha, but the 
approach of the Amphissians compelled them to retreat. A 
special meeting was held to induce the Locrians to submit, 
but they refused ; and, at the regular autumn meeting, the 



300 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Council took the fatal step * of appealing to Philip, their 
protector, to come and be the instrument of divine vengeance 
against the impious Locrians. 

Feeling that his opportunity had now come, he marched 
down with a force of about 30,000 men, accompanied by 
his son, Alexander, now eighteen years old. He passed 
through Thermopylae, and then, instead of proceeding 
southward to Amphissa, which he would have done had 
his object been simply to punish the Amphissians, he 
halted at Elatea, a ruined Phocian town, which commanded 
the road towards Thebes and Athens, and proceeded to 
fortify himself there. 

The news of the seizure of Elatea reached Athens, 
Demosthenes tells us, in the evening, when the market- 
place was crowded with buyers and sellers. Great was 
the consternation : the market-place was cleared with the 
utmost speed, and a meeting of the Ecclesia was summoned 
for the next morning. When it assembled no one had any 
proposal to make till Demosthenes rose and said that 
Athens must lay aside her long-standing hostility to the 
Thebans, and ask them to join in alliance against the 
invader. His suggestion was adopted, and he himself with 
other ambassadors was sent to Thebes, while every nerve 
was strained to equip a force for the field. Demosthenes 
reached Thebes only just in time ; Philip's ambassadors 
were there already, and were supported by a considerable 
party among the citizens ; but patriotic sentiments and 
the eloquence of Demosthenes prevailed, and the Thebans 
decided to throw in their lot with Athens. This was a 
bitter disappointment to Philip, who had counted at least 
on the neutrality of the Thebans, if not on their aid, and 
he was brought for a time to a standstill. 

Through the winter and the early part of B.C. 338 
the allied army, Thebans, Athenians, with contingents 
from the Corinthians, Achi"eans, and a few other states, 



THIRD SACRED WAR: CH&RONEA 301 

collected by the activity of Demosthenes, kept Philip 
in check on the frontier of Bceotia, between Elatea 
and Chseronea, and are even said to have won two 
victories. But by August he seems to have obtained re- 
inforcements from home, and attacked the allies on 
the plain of Chgeronea. The Athenians were on the 
left, the Thebans, headed by their Sacred Band, on the 
right, the other allies in the centre. Philip commanded 
the wing opposite the Athenians, Alexander that opposite 
the Thebans. The accounts of this most momentous battle 
are unfortunately meagre, but the issue could not have been 
doubtful between Philip's well-trained phalanx and the 
Greek citizen-soldiers, whose quality may be judged from 
the fact that Demosthenes, aged forty-seven, was fighting in 
the Athenian ranks ; the impetuous charge of the Athenians 
at first bore back Philip's wing, but his better-trained 
soldiers gradually forced them back again ; Alexander, after 
a desperate struggle, overpowered the Thebans, the whole 
of the Sacred Band dying where they fought ; he then 
assailed the rest of the Greek army, which soon was in full 
flight. The loss of the two armies is not known ; but the 
Athenians left a thousand men on the field and two thousand 
prisoners in Philip's hands. All was over ; the liberty of 
Greece had been fought for and lost ; the Macedonian 
phalanx had triumphed over the eloquence and patriotism 
of Demosthenes. 

Thebes surrendered at once, and was severely punished 
for its desertion. Philip sold his Theban prisoners into 
slavery, banished the leaders of the party opposed to him, 
and set up an oligarchy of 300 of his partisans, supported 
by a Macedonian garrison in the Cadmea. At Athens all 
was agony and despair, but on the motion of Demosthenes, 
who escaped from the rout and was accused by JEschines of 
cowardice, preparations were made for a last resistance. 

But Philip felt respect for the Athenians, though so long 



302 HISTORY OF GREECE 

his foes, nor did he wish to drive them to extremities, for 
with their powerful fleet they might have successfully re- 
sisted a siege. He therefore offered to restore them their 
prisoners without ransom, and to leave them unmolested, 
on condition that they gave up their possessions in Thrace, 
and acknowledged him as the head of Greece. These un- 
expectedly generous terms the Athenians, hopeless of being 
able to offer any sustained resistance, accepted ; the horrors 
of a victorious invasion were averted, but the glory of free 
imperial Athens was gone for ever. Corinth and the other 
allies submitted in their turn. The Spartans alone, who 
had not fought at Cheeronea, held sullenly aloof and refused 
to humble themselves before the Macedonian conqueror. 
Philip marched into the Peloponnese, and deprived them 
of some territory, but for what reason we know not, he 
did not attack Sparta itself, but left it in its self-chosen 
isolation. 

At the end of the year a congress was held at Corinth, 
which was attended by all the states of Greece except 
Sparta ; and Philip was definitely acknowledged Head of 
Greece. In order to divert the minds of the Greeks from 
their humiliating subjection to Macedonia, he proclaimed 
that he was about to renew the war of revenge against Persia, 
which had been attempted and abandoned by the Spartans 
sixty years before. This project had been in the minds of 
the Greeks - ever since the campaigns of Agesilaus, though 
the wars between Sparta and Thebes had prevented it being 
carried out, and the friendship of the Great King had been 
sought even by the Spartans for political purposes ; but a 
treatise has come down to us, written by the Athenian 
orator, Isocrates, in the form of a speech, in which he 
proposes that the states should settle their differences, and, 
under the joint leadership of Sparta and Athens, undertake 
a new Persian war. At length this war was to be really 
undertaken, but under the leadership of Macedonia, not of 



THIRD SACRED WAR: CHMRONEA 303 

Sparta and Athens. Philip was named commander-in-chief 
of the united Greek forces, and returned to Macedonia to 
begin the preparations for the great campaign. In the 
spring of B.C. 336 the advanced guard, under the two 
Macedonian generals, Parmenio and Attalus, had already 
crossed the Hellespont, when Philip was murdered. The 
cause of his murder was as follows : he had quarrelled with 
his first wife, Olympias, the mother of Alexander, a woman 
of ungovernable temper and savage disposition, and had 
lately married a new wife, Cleopatra, niece of Attalus, 
who persuaded him to deprive Alexander of the succession 
to the throne. To calm these family dissensions, Philip 
arranged a marriage between Alexander, king of Epirus, 
the brother of Olympias, and her daughter, also called 
Cleopatra, but this did not appease Olympias ; hearing 
that a young man named Pausanias had been deeply 
wronged by Attalus, and had in vain appealed to Philip 
for redress, she and her partisans stirred him up to revenge. 
At a splendid festival, in honour of the marriage of Olympias's 
daughter and the birth of a new son and heir to Philip, 
Pausanias stabbed him with a dagger, but was himself 
caught and slain. 

Thus, in the prime of his life at the age of forty-six, died 
the man who raised Macedonia from the position of a weak, 
semi-barbarous state to be the mistress of Greece, and laid 
the foundations of the astounding conquests carried out by 
his still greater son. Of kingly bearing and captivating 
manners, endowed with untiring energy and resource, a 
skilful diplomatist, who never shrank from duplicity and 
even corruption to gain his ends, an able general and trainer 
of soldiers, but in his private life a coarse and brutal 
sensualist, Philip is one of the most striking characters of 
Greek or any other history. 

Alexander, who does not appear to have been himself 
involved in the plot, was at once proclaimed king by the 



304 HISTORY OF GREECE 

adherents of Olynrpias, being now only twenty years old, 
and was loyally accepted by the army and nation ; he 
satisfied public opinion by giving his father a splendid 
funeral, and punishing some of the accomplices of Pausanias 
with death. He then secured his position in true Eastern 
fashion by putting to death his cousin, Amyntas, son of 
Philip's elder brother Perdiccas (see p. 275), the infant son 
of Cleopatra, and her uncle, Attains ; Cleopatra herself was 
afterwards put to death by Olynrpias. His next proceeding- 
was to show himself with a large army in Greece ; the 
death of Philip had for the moment excited wild hopes of 
freedom, especially at Athens, where, on the motion of 
Demosthenes, a vote of thanksgiving was passed. But 
the appearance of Alexander with his army soon crushed 
these hopes, and a congress at Corinth confirmed him as 
commander-in-chief in the place of his father. The next 
year (b.c. 335) he started on a campaign in Thrace to 
show his power in that quarter ; here his wonderful military 
genius first began to display itself, he made long and rapid 
marches, forced his way over difficult mountain passes, 
crossed the Danube without loss in the face of the enemy, 
and defeated the barbarian tribes of the country. 

During Alexanders prolonged absence in these regions 
discontent again broke out in Greece, and encouraged by 
the report of his death, and by promises of help from several 
quarters, the Thebans declared their independence, and 
besieged the Macedonian garrison in the Cadmea. 
Demosthenes attempted to enlist the Athenians on their 
side, but Phocion and his party threw doubts on the 
reported death of Alexander, and persuaded the people to 
keep the peace. The news of the revolt reached Alexander 
in Illyria ; a rapid march of a fortnight brought him upon 
the astonished Thebans before help could reach them. He 
at once attacked Thebes, stormed it after desperate fighting, 
and punished it for its rebellion in a severe and exemplary 



THIRD SACRED WAR: CHjERONEA 305 

fashion. The city was levelled to the ground, and the 
surviving inhabitants, except actual friends of Macedonia, 
were sold into slavery ; the Cadmea was left with its 
Macedonian garrison. Such was the sad end of the city 
which, more than any other, was the cause of the entrance 
of the Macedonians into Greece. Alexander then ordered 
the Athenians to surrender Demosthenes and the leading 
orators on his side ; but, at the urgent entreaties of the 
Macedonian party in Athens, he was induced to forgo the 
demand. After another congress to settle details for the 
invasion of Persia, he returned to Macedonia ; and in the 
following spring (b.c. 334), leaving Antipater with 12,000 
men to keep order in Macedonia and Greece, he crossed 
the Hellespont. He never saw Macedonia or Greece again. 
With the battle of Chasronea, the real history of free 
Greece ends ; many men, no doubt, like Demosthenes, 
still looked forward to a time when the fetters of the 
Macedonian tyrant might be thrown off; and the dying 
flame of Greek freedom flickered up again fitfully more 
than once. But the past was gone beyond recall : worn 
out by the internecine struggles of her leading states for 
pre-eminence, Greece could no longer stand alone. But 
a new and greater destiny awaited her ; under the shield of 
the soldier king of Maceclon she was to spread her 
civilisation, her arts, and culture over the Eastern world, 
and then over the West, where a race of mighty but rude 
conquerors were already beginning their career on the banks 
of the Tiber. 

Dates, 
Supremacy of Sparta. 

The Thirty Tyrants at Athens, . . . . 404-3 

The Expedition of the Ten Thousand, . , , 401 

The Spartans attack Persia, 399 

Agesilaus sent to Asia, 396 

U 



306 HISTORY OF GREECE 

War in Greece : Thebes and Athens against 

Sparta. Battle of Haliartus, .... 395 
Corinthian War : Thebes, Athens, Argos and 
Corinth against Sparta. Agesilaus recalled 
from Asia. Battles of Corinth, Cnidus and 
Coronea. End of the Spartan Naval Supremacy, 394 
Rebuilding of the Long Walls of Athens, . . 393 
Peace of Antalcidas, . . . . . 387 

The Spartans seize the Theban Cadmea in time of 

peace, 382 

The Thebans recover the Cadmea, . . . 379 
War : Athens and Thebes against Sparta. Athens 
founds a new Naval Confederacy, . . . 378 

Battle of Naxos, : 376 

Peace of Callias (Thebans excluded). Battle of 
Leuctra, 371 

Theban Supremacy. 
Epaminondas repulsed from Sparta. He frees 
Messenia and founds Megalopolis as capital of 

Arcadia, 370 

The ' Tearless Battle. ' Spartans against Arcadians, 367 
Battle of Olympia : Arcadians against Eleans, . 364 
Dispute between Mantinea and Tegea. Battle of 
Mantinea : Thebans and allies against Spartans, 
Athenians, and Mantineans. Death of Epam- 
inondas, 362 



Rise of Macedon. 
Access, on of Philip of Macedon, . 
Philip takes Amphipolis, .... 
Social War : the allies of Athens revolt, 
Second Sacred War : against Phocians, 
Philip tries to invade Phocis, but is stopped a 

Thermopylae by the Athenians, 
Philip destroys the Olynthian Confederacy, 
Peace of Philocrates : Sacred War ended by the 

Conquest of Phocians by Philip, 
Renewal of war between Athens and Philip, 
Third Sacred War : against Locrians. Phili 



359 
358 
357-5 
357 

352 
350 

349 
340 



THIRD SACRED WAR: CHjERONEA 



307 



marches into Greece : alliance of Thebes and 
Athens, . . ... . . . 339 

Battle of Chseronea : Philip acknowledged Head 
of Greece, 338 



Murder of Philip. Accession of Alexander, 
Kevolt and Destruction of Thebes, 
Alexander invades Persia, . 



Contemporary Events. 



West. 



B.C. 



Siege of Syracuse by the 

Carthaginians, . . 396 
Capture of Home by the 

Gauls, .... 390 
First Samnite War, . . 343 
Conquest of the Latins by 

Kome, .... 340 
Archidamus, king of Sparta, 

killed fighting in Italy, 338 



East 

Artaxerxes Mnemon, 

king of Persia, 
Ochus, 
Darius Codomannus, . 



336 
335 
334 



B.C. 

405-359 
359-336 
336-330 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT : 
OVERTHROW OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE 

Dates. B.C. 

Battle of the Granicus. Siege of Halicarnassus, . 334 

Battle of Issus, 333 

Sieges of Tyre and Gaza : Alexander in Egypt, . 332 

Battle of Arbela. End of the Persian Empire, . 331 

Death of Darius, 330 

Chief Xames.— Alexander, Darius, Memnon, 
Parmenio, Bessus. 

The force with which Alexander began the wonderful 
series of campaigns, which shattered the empire founded by 
the great Cyrus, consisted of about thirty thousand infantry, 
of whom twelve thousand formed the phalanx and the rest 
were Greek hoplites, and five thousand cavalry, including 
the bodyguard of young nobles called the Companions : he 
had also a formidable train of siege engines, battering-rams, 
and catapults. Small as this force seemed for the gigantic 
enterprise before it, it proved amply sufficient. It was a 
thoroughly organised fighting machine of professional 
soldiers, ready to march anywhere and to undertake any 
kind of fighting ; and so its campaigns form a striking 
contrast to the puny efforts of the Spartan citizen-soldiers 
under Agesilaus. 

The Persian Empire was at this time apparently stronger 

308 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 



309 



than it had been for many years, for the late king, Ochus, 
had recently reconquered Phoenicia and Egypt. Darius 
Codomannus, the present king, succeeded to the throne, 
B.C. 336. A virtuous but weak king, he was not the 
man to cope with such an antagonist as Alexander. He 
had begun his preparations for defence when he first heard 
of Philip's hostile intentions, but had dropped them at the 
news of his murder. The Phoenician fleet, therefore, was 
not yet ready, and so Alexander was able to cross the 
Hellespont unopposed. Darius's ablest general was a 




Temple of 
Aramon 



CAMPAIGNS OF ALEXANDER (i.) 



Khodian named Memnon : his plan of action was not to 
fight Alexander, but to attack him with the fleet in Greece 
which would be certain to join the invaders. But the 
satrap of Phrygia who was in command disregarded this 
advice, and, with a large force of Persian cavalry and Greek 
mercenaries, confronted Alexander on the banks of the little 



310 HISTORY OF GREECE 

river Granicus. Alexander forced the passage of the river 
against the Persian cavalry, fighting himself bravely with 
his Companions, and being several times in danger of his 
life ; and then surrounded and destroyed the Greek 
infantry. Appalled by this crushing defeat, Sardis and 
Ephesus threw open their gates; but Miletus relying on 
the Phoenician fleet, which had now arrived, held out ; so 
formidable were the Phoenicians that Alexander would not 
let the Greek fleet engage them, and soon disbanded it as 
being of no further use. He took Miletus by means of his 
siege artillery, and then attacked Halicarnassus. Memnon 
who conducted the defence resisted desperately, but was at 
length compelled to abandon the city, carrying off as many 
of the inhabitants as he could. Memnon now attempted to 
put his original plan into execution : in the following 
spring he took Chios with the fleet, but died while besieging 
Mitylene, and after his death his plan, which had roused 
great excitement in Greece, collapsed. After the capture 
of Halicarnassus, Alexander pushed on during the autumn 
and winter, reducing by his rapid marches all the country 
as far as Pamphylia, and then marched northward to 
Gordium in Phrygia, where he at last halted his army for 
their well-earned repose at the beginning of B.c 333. At 
Gordium was an ancient waggon, said by tradition to 
belong to Midas, son of Gordius, a mythical king of 
Phrygia. The yoke was fastened to the pole by a com- 
plicated knot ; and he who could untie the knot would, 
according to an ancient prophecy, become the conqueror of 
Asia. Alexander, in the presence of a large crowd, attempted 
the task in vain ; whereupon he drew his sword and cut 
the knot, and was at once hailed as the destined conqueror. 
At the beginning of summer Alexander resumed his 
advance ; the Cilician gates (see p. 236), as in the days of 
Cyrus and the Ten Thousand, were left undefended, and 
he reached Tarsus, where he nearly died of a chill from 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 311 

bathing in the river Cydnus. On his recovery he con- 
tinued his march towards Phoenicia and Egypt ; where 
the coast-line turns southward the road runs through 
a long defile about two miles wide between the spurs 
of Mount Amanus and the sea ; in this defile lay the town 
of Issus. 

But Darius was now approaching with a host of 500,000 
men, 30,000 of whom were Greek mercenaries and 60,000 
Asiatics armed after the Greek fashion. Hoping to find 
Alexander still ill, he was pushing on towards Tarsus ; and, 
crossing a pass in Mount Amanus, he descended to Issus a 
few days after the Macedonian army had passed. Alex- 
ander immediately faced about and advanced against him ; 
owing to the narrowness of the ground, Darius could only 
bring into action a quarter of his force, consisting of the best 
troops, the remainder being massed in rear ; a little river 
protected his front. Alexander charged across the stream 
with his Macedonian cavalry against the Persian hoplites 
on the left, who quickly broke and fled ; after completing 
their rout he fell upon the left flank and rear of the Greeks 
in the centre, who, from the nature of the ground, had suc- 
cessfully resisted the attack of the Phalanx. Seeing the 
defeat of his left wing, Darius, in terror for his life, rode 
from the field ; the Greeks, attacked on two sides at once, 
broke and fled, except 8000 who bravely fought their way 
through the foe and escaped by sea to Egypt ; and the 
Macedonians fell upon the crowded and defenceless mob 
in the rear and slaughtered them like sheep, numbers being 
trampled under foot in their vain attempt to escape from 
their relentless pursuers. Darius, with a few thousand 
fugitives, escaped over Mount Amanus to the Euphrates. 
But his army was destroyed, his camp and military chest 
were taken, and his wife, sister, mother, and two daughters 
fell into Alexanders hands, who treated them with all 
respect and courtesy. The Macedonian loss in killed and 



3 1 2 HISTOR Y OF GREECE 

wounded was under one thousand, Alexander himself being 
slightly wounded (November, B.C. 333). 

After this prodigious victory Alexander renewed his 
inarch towards Phoenicia. Of the two great Phoenician 
cities Sidon welcomed him gladly, but Tyre closed its 
gates. Then ensued the famous siege of Tyre, which lasted 
eight months (December 333 to July 332). The city of 
Tyre was situated on an island, fortified with enormous 
walls, about three-quarters of a mile from the shore. 
Having no fleet, Alexander set to work to build a mole 
across the strait ; this was a work of incredible difficulty 
owing to the continual attacks of the Tyrian ships ; and, 
when it was nearly completed, the Tyrians destroyed it and 
all Alexander's engines by means of fireships. Nothing 
daunted, he began to build the mole again, and collected a 
fleet from Sidon and Cyprus, which totally defeated the 
Tyrian fleet. After this resistance was hopeless. The mole 
was finished : Tyre was stormed with fearful slaughter, and 
the survivors sold into slavery. During the siege came an 
embassy from Darius offering all the country west of the 
Euphrates, the hand of his daughter in marriage, and 
10,000 talents as ransom for his family. These terms 
were discussed in a council of war : ' I would accept them 
if I were Alexander/ said Parmenio. 'So would I if I 
were Parmenio,' replied Alexander, and contemptuously 
rejected the offer. 

He encountered no further resistance except from the 
important Philistine city of Gaza, which he took after a 
siege of two months by building a mound right round it 
150 feet high. From Gaza he is said by the Jewish his- 
torian Josephus to have visited Jerusalem, intending to 
punish it for not sending him aid against Tyre ; but being 
met outside the city by the venerable high priest Jadclua, 
he desisted from his purpose and offered sacrifice in the 
Temple. 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 313 

Alexander reached Egypt in the autumn of B.C. 332, and 
was welcomed enthusiastically as its deliverer from the 
Persian yoke, the weak Persian garrison in Memphis sur- 
rendering. While in Egypt he founded Alexandria by 
joining the island of Pharos to the mainland by a mole ; 
Alexandria became the greatest Greek city in the East, 
rivalling Corinth in its trade and Athens in its learning, 
and to this day playing no unimportant part in European 
history. He also made a march through the desert to 
an oasis where was the Temple of Zeus Ammon, wishing, 
it is said, to ascertain whether, like his ancestors Heracles 
and Perseus, he also was of divine birth, and the priest 
hailed him as the son of the god and promised him a 
career of conquest. 

Asia Minor, Palestine, and Egypt being now secured, the 
time had come for the advance to the Euphrates valley, the 
heart of the Persian Empire. Alexander left Egypt in the 
spring of b.c. 331, crossed the Euphrates in August by the 
ford of Thapsacus, the same which Cyrus and the Ten 
Thousand had used, then crossed the Tigris north of 
Nineveh, and learnt that Darius was at hand with a fresh 
army, with elephants and scythe-chariots, to try once more 
the fortune of war against the terrible invader. Supposing 
that his defeat at Issus had been caused by the narrowness 
of the ground, Darius had carefully selected for the battle- 
field a wide level plain on the east bank of the Tigris, 
about fifty miles from the city of Arbela, which has given 
its name to the battle ; and there he lay encamped with a 
force, the numbers of which are variously stated from 
250,000 to 1,000,000, awaiting the approach of Alexander. 

Level plain or narrow defile however was all one to 
Alexander ; to prevent his small force being surrounded he 
simply drew up a second line in reserve. The night before 
the battle Parmenio came to him and suggested a night 
attack, but Alexander replied that he would only conquer 



3 1 4 HIS TOR Y OF GREECE 

openly in fair fight ; the Persians, however, had remained 
under arms all night in expectation 'of such an attack, and 
were thus already wearied out when the time for fighting 
came. 

The battle began by Darius sending some cavalry to 
outflank Alexander's right while the chariots attacked it in 
front, but the cavalry were defeated and the chariots driven 
back on the troops behind them ; then Alexander followed 
up the success by charging with his cavalry and phalanx at 
the Persian centre just where Darius was, and so terror- 
striking were the Macedonian charge and war-shout that, 
as at Issus, the wretched king turned his chariot and fled, 
and his flight was soon followed by his left wing and 
centre. Meanwhile Parmenio, on the Macedonian left, was 
hard pressed by the Persian right, which, by its superior 
numbers, nearly surrounded him ; and some Indian and 
Persian cavalry even forced their way through his line and 
attacked the camp in the rear ; but, in response to his appeal 
for aid Alexander brought up his victorious left wing, and the 
whole Persian army was in utter rout ; about forty thousand 
were left on the field, but the army was utterly ruined, and 
Darius himself was a fugitive among the mountains ; the 
Macedonian loss was, as usual, trifling, but many horses 
were lost in a vain attempt to overtake Darius. Such was 
the battle of Arbela which decided the destiny of Asia 
(September, B.C. 331). The empire founded by the great 
Cyrus had come to an end after lasting a little over two 
hundred years. 

Babylon and Susa at once made their submission, and 
with them Alexander obtained an enormous treasure, over 
ten million pounds, the hoardings of the Persian kings. 
The Babylonians, like the Egyptians, welcomed him as a 
deliverer; for they hated the Persians, who, being fire- 
worshippers, had persecuted their idolatrous worship and 
destroyed their temples; but Alexander sacrificed to their 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 315 

god and ordered the temples to be rebuilt. At Babylon 
he stayed a whole month, resting his weary soldiers and 
arranging the government of his empire ; for he now acted 
as king of Persia and set satraps over the different parts of 
the conquered territory, some Macedonians, others Persians 
who had surrendered. 

Alexander then left Babylon (b.c. 331, autumn) to pur- 
sue and capture Darius and to conquer the remaining part 
of the Persian Empire, the vast region of mountain and 
desert stretching from the Tigris to the Indus, which is 
roughly comprised by modern Persia, Afghanistan, and 
Beloochistan. He did not see Babylon again for seven years. 

The first halt was at Susa, where reinforcements of 
15,000 men arrived from Macedonia. Thence, after severely 
chastising a barbarian tribe which barred his inarch, he 
pushed on for the province of Persis, the ancient home of 
the Persians. Ariobarzanes, the satrap of the province, 
tried to hold the Persian Gates, a narrow defile in the moun- 
tains, but Alexander destroyed his army by sending a force 
over a difficult mountain path to fall upon his rear. Perse- 
polis, the chief treasury and one of the burial places of the 
Persian kings, surrendered, and Ariobarzanes was slain in 
attempting to carry off the treasure, which fell into the hands 
of Alexander to the almost incredible amount of twenty- seven 
million pounds. In revenge for the destruction of Athens 
by Xerxes, and enraged at the sight of 800 Greek prisoners 
horribly mutilated after the Persian fashion, Alexander set 
on fire the citadel with all the temples it contained, and let 
his soldiers loose on the city and its inhabitants to kill and 
plunder. With Persepolis also surrendered Pasargadae, the 
ancient capital of the Persians and the burial-place of Cyrus. 

From Persepolis Alexander now marched northward 
towards Ecbatana, the old capital of the Medes, whither 
Darius had fled over the mountains from the fatal field of 
Arbela; hearing of the approach of his relentless foe, he 



3 16 HIS TOR Y OF GREECE 

fled eastwards, accompanied by a few thousand troops and 
by Bessus, satrap of Bactria (the country now called Balkh, 
north of Afghanistan) ; there he hoped that Alexander 
would leave him in peace. Alexander reached Ecbatana 
eight days after Darius had left ; he made it his chief store- 
place and base of operations, leaving Parmenio there in com- 
mand, with orders to hand the money (over £40,000,000) 
to his treasurer, Harpalus ; then having reorganised his 
army to make it more suitable for its new kind of work, he 
hurried on in hot pursuit through the mountainous country 
south of the Caspian Sea. He hoped to overtake Darius 
before he had passed a long and difficult defile called the 
Caspian Gates ; but not succeeding, he gave his exhausted 
troops five days' indispensable rest, and then started off 
again through the Gates. During his rapid flight Darius's 
forces had become greatly thinned by desertion ; and 
Bessus, knowing, from his conduct at Issus and Arbela, 
that no effective resistance could be made under his com- 
mand, made him a prisoner, loading him with chains of gold, 
and took the command upon himself. This news, brought 
to Alexander by Persian deserters of high rank, spurred 
Alexander to still greater efforts, for he feared that the king's 
life was in danger. Pushing on with a picked force, by 
incredible exertions he reached a village where the fugitives 
had encamped the previous day, and then learning that he 
might cut them off by a shorter route through a waterless 
desert, he rode forty-five miles by night and fell upon the 
unsuspecting Persians in the morning ; the troops fled, 
Bessus tried to induce Darius to flee with them, but he 
refused, whereupon Bessus and his friends ran him through 
with their javelins and made off. When Alexander came 
up the unhappy king was dead (b.c. 330, summer). Vow- 
ing vengeance against Bessus for depriving him of his royal 
prisoner, Alexander sent the body of Darius to Persepolis 
and ordered it to be given a royal burial. 



O.HAPTEE XXXIX 

CONQUEST OF THE EAST : DEATH OF ALEXANDER 

Dates. B.C. 

Conquest of tribes South of the Caspian and of 

modern Afghanistan. Execution of Philotas 

and Parmenio, 330 

Conquest of Bactria. Murder of Cleitus, . . 329 

Conquest of Sogdiana, . ' 328 

Invasion of India. Defeat of Porus. Voyage 

down the Indus, 326 

Return march of Alexander and Voyage of the 

Fleet from the Indus to the Euphrates, . . 325 
Death of Alexander, 323 

Chief Names. — Alexander, Philotas, Parmenio, Hephsestion, 
Roxana, Cleitus, Porus, Nearchus, Perdiccas. 

After a long halt, to reunite and rest his scattered and 
harassed troops, Alexander conquered the tribes on the 
southern shore of the Caspian and then turned his arms 
eastwards against Bessus, who had escaped to his satrapy. 
The autumn and winter were spent in the subjugation of 
the country now called Afghanistan ; and near the modern 
Cabul Alexander founded a town called Alexandria near 
the Caucasus (for the Greeks thought that the Hindoo 
Koosh were a continuation of that range). 

In the spring of b.c. 329 he crossed the Hindoo Koosh into 

Bactria, which submitted, and Bessus, unable to muster 

sufficient troops to resist, fled northwards into the district 

called Sogdiana. Alexander pressed after him across a hot 

318 



CONQUEST OF THE EAST 319 

desert, and then transported his army over the river Oxus, 
three-quarters of a mile broad, on inflated tent-skins : a feat 
which so astonished the adherents of Bessus that they 
surrendered him. Alexander ordered the wretched satrap 
to be brought naked and in chains to the roadside, and, after 
upbraiding him for his murder of his master, sent him back 
to Bactria. Afterwards he cruelly cut off his nose and ears, 
and sent him to Ecbatana to be put to death by the Persians. 
From the Oxus Alexander proceeded northwards to the 
river Jaxartes, the northern boundary of the Persian 
Empire ; here, after a skirmish with the wild Scythians 
beyond that river, he founded another city to guard the 
frontier called ' Alexandria on the Jaxartes,' or Furthest 
Alexandria, probably the modern Khodjend. This was the 
limit of Alexander's northward march ; he remained two 
years in these wild regions, thoroughly subduing their 
savage inhabitants ; his most notable feat of arms was the 
storming of a precipitous mountain stronghold called the 
Sogdian Rock ; here he captured the family of a Bactrian 
chief, one of whose daughters, called Koxana, was so beautiful 
that he soon afterwards married her. 

This wonderful career of conquest demanded far greater 
military skill and endurance than the overthrow of the 
hordes of Darius, but it was marred by some atrocious 
crimes worse than the punishment of Bessus, which showed 
that beneath the brilliant exterior of the Macedonian 
conqueror there still lurked traces of the barbarian. From 
the time that he had become the master of Persia, Alexander, 
fascinated by the grandeur and wealth of that Empire, or, 
perhaps, wishing to please his Persian subjects, and so weld 
them and the Macedonians into an united people, had 
assumed Persian dress and manners, and tried to force them 
upon his officers. To this many of them, sturdy veterans 
of Philip's wars, strongly objected, as they did also to 
Alexander's claim to a divine birth, which they considered 



320 HISTORY OF GREECE 

an insult to their old master Philip. Among these mal- 
contents was PMlotas, commander of the Companions, and 
son of the old general Parinenio. It happened during the 
campaign on the Caspian that a conspiracy was formed 
against Alexander's life, and betrayed to Philotas, who 
omitted to tell Alexander ; the plot was afterwards dis- 
covered and crushed. Alexander, who had long been aware 
of Philotas's sentiments, seized the opportunity, and, ac- 
cording to Macedonian custom, accused him before the 
army of being an accomplice in the plot, and he was con- 
demned. Being put to torture before his execution, he is 
said to have confessed his guilt, and even implicated his 
father Parmenio ; and so secret orders were sent to Ecbatana, 
where Parmenio was in the command, and the aged veteran 
was put to death : great indignation broke out among the 
troops at Ecbatana, and a mutiny was with difficulty averted. 
The command of the Companions was now divided and 
given to Hephsestion and Cleitus, the latter of whom had 
saved Alexander's life at the Granicus. 

Cleitus was the cause of the second crime. At a banquet 
during the campaign beyond Bactria, when the revellers, 
including Alexander, had already drunk overmuch wine, 
and his flatterers were as usual extolling him as a god, 
Cleitus broke out and said words to which, in soberer 
moments, he would never have given utterance in Alexander's 
presence. ' Alexander is no Zeus-born hero ; it is not he 
but Parmenio and the Macedonian army which have won the 
victories, and that army was made by Philip. 3 Then, 
turning to the infuriated Alexander, he cried : ' This is the 
hand that saved your life^ at the Granicus ; if you do not 
like my words, go to your barbarian slaves, and do not ask 
Macedonian freemen to your table. 5 At this Alexander, 
wild with drunken rage, felt for his dagger to stab Cleitus, 
but his attendants had removed it. All was confusion. 
Some officers in terror tried to hurry Cleitus from the room, 



CONQUEST OF THE EAST 321 

others seized Alexander, but he shook himself free, snatched 
a spear from a soldier, and slew Cleitus on the spot, 
with the words, 'Go to Philip and Parmenio. ; At once 
terrible remorse seized him : for three days, he lay on his 
bed refusing food ; but at last the arguments of his officers, 
and a vote of the army to the effect that Cleitus had 
deserved his death, restored his peace of mind. 

The third crime was the murder of the philosopher 
Callisthenes, an Olynthian, and nephew of the Greek 
philosopher Aristotle. Alexander, who liked to encourage 
philosophy, literature, and art, was attended in his long 
marches by poets, historians, actors, and philosophers, and 
thus kept up the semblance of a court even in the wilds of 
Asia. Callisthenes offended Alexander by being too out- 
spoken, and at a banquet he argued strongly against a 
fellow-philosopher, who made a speech extolling Alexander 
as a god ; and then, in the most public and marked way, 
he refused to prostrate himself, that being the way in which 
Alexander wished the divine honours to be paid. When, 
therefore, a conspiracy was discovered among the royal 
pages, Alexander revenged himself by accusing Callisthenes 
of being involved in it on no other grounds than that the 
chief conspirator was his friend ; and the unfortunate 
philosopher was tortured and hanged. 

It was in the summer of b.c. 327, soon after this last 
disgraceful crime, that Alexander left Bactria, and turned 
southwards again. His object now was the conquest of 
India. Kecrossing the Hindoo Koosh, he conquered the 
tribes in his path as far as the Indus, which he crossed in 
the spring of b.c. 326, and advanced into the district now 
called the Punjaub. On the banks of the Hydaspes (the 
Jhelum), his passage was disputed by an Indian monarch 
named Porus with a large army and many elephants. 
Alexander with his usual skill forced the passage, and de- 
feated Porus, who, after losing his two sons, was taken 

X 



322 HISTORY OF GREECE 

fighting bravely : the elephants for a time caused great 
loss to the Macedonians, but soon they became unmanage- 
able, and threw their own infantry into confusion. 

When Porus was brought before him Alexander asked 
him how he wished to be treated. ' Like a king,' was the 
gallant reply, which so pleased Alexander that he restored 
him his dominions, and afterwards increased them by his fresh 
conquests. He founded two cities on the Hydaspes, Nicsea 
(the city of victory, NiKcua) and Bucephala, in honour and 
in memory of his favourite charger Bucephalus who died 
there. He then advanced, conquering those tribes which 
did not submit as far as the Hypasis (Sutlej), the eastern- 
most of the five rivers of the Punjaub. Here his victorious 
career was brought to an end by the refusal of nis army to 
advance any further ; he appealed to their devotion ; he 
offered to take only volunteers ; he shut himself up for three 
days. But it was all in vain, the limits of human endurance 
had been reached ; and, after erecting twelve altars on the 
bank of the Hypasis to mark the limit of his conquests, he 
returned to the Hydaspes. He now busied himself in 
building and collecting a large fleet of 2000 vessels to sail 
down the Hydaspes and Indus, which he thought was the 
upper part of the Nile. The start was made in the autumn 
of B.C. 326 : he himself with one division was on board the 
fleet, which was commanded by Nearchus, a Cretan, while 
another division inarched on either bank ; after a voyage of 
nine months, occupied by continual engagements with 
native tribes, the Indian Ocean was reached in the summer 
of B.C. 325, and Alexander discovered his mistake. Ordering 
Nearchus to sail to the mouth of the Euphrates along the 
coast, he started on his homeward march about August 
through the modern Beloochistan, the hot sandy deserts of 
which caused great suffering to the troops for sixty days ; 
on one occasion, when the whole army was afflicted with 
thirst, a little water is said to have been found and brought 



CONQUEST OF THE EAST 323 

in a helmet to Alexander, but with noble self-restraint he 
poured it out on the sand, refusing to be better treated than 
his men. In February, B.C. 324, the army reached Susa, 
and the long series of marches and campaigns, the most 
wonderful the world has ever seen, were over. 

Alexander now began to busy himself in settling and 
arranging the government of his great empire. His first 
task was to inquire into the conduct of the satraps, several 
of whom, during his prolonged absence, thinking perhaps 
that he would never return, had abused their high position 
to rob and ill-treat their subjects. Some were put to death, 
but one, the treasurer, Harpalus (see p. 316), who had been 
made satrap of Babylon, had already fled to Greece with 
five thousand talents and some mercenaries, and tried to 
stir up revolt. Then, still intent on his scheme of uniting 
the Persians and Macedonians, Alexander married a daughter 
of Darius and another Persian princess, in addition to his 
existing wife, Eoxana, ordered his soldiers to take to them- 
selves Persian wives, raised a force of 30,000 men from the 
most warlike of the tribes he had conquered, and introduced 
them into the Phalanx and cavalry, announcing his intention 
of sending the older soldiers home. These measures roused 
the greatest discontent in the army ; a present of money 
to those who were in debt, said by the historian Arrian to 
have amounted to the incredible sum of 20,000 talents 
(,£4,600,000), failed to appease it, and a mutiny broke out. 
Then Alexander withdrew himself from his army as he had 
done on the Hypasis : this time the plan succeeded, the 
soldiers came in tears and implored his forgiveness, they 
agreed to take Persian wives, and Alexander only set 
apart 10,000 of the oldest and feeblest to be sent back 
to Macedonia. 

At Ecbatana, whither he proceeded from Susa, he lost his 
favourite officer, Hephsestion, who died of fever, brought on 
by the drunken revelry, which, as the story of Cleitus shows, 



324 HISTORY OF GREECE 

often followed the banquets of Alexander and his officers. 
His death, which came at the last very suddenly, filled 
Alexander with uncontrollable grief; he lay for hours with- 
out eating by the dead body of his friend, proclaimed a 
general mourning throughout the camp, put to death the 
physician who attended the patient, and sent the body to 
Babylon, where a huge funeral pyre, costing, it is said, the 
enormous sum of 10,000 talents (£2,300,000), was to be 
erected. . In the winter Alexander found some relief to his 
sorrow in the excitement of a campaign against a savage 
mountain tribe, the Cossaei. He exterminated them after a 
six weeks' campaign, and started for Babylon, the capital of 
his empire (spring of B.C. 323) ; as he approached the city, 
he was met by embassies from the Grecian states, and from 
many foreign nations and tribes, whom the fame of his 
exploits had reached, Carthaginians, Etruscans, Gauls, 
Scythians, ^Ethiopians, and even, according to one account, 
the Romans themselves. 

. As he drew near to Babylon he was stopped by some 
Chaldsean priests who warned him that their god Bel had 
told them that if he entered the city evil would follow, a 
warning which he naturally disregarded. He found at 
Babylon preparations in progress for the next enterprise 
which he was already planning, the conquest of Arabia by 
sea and land, and the docks on the Euphrates were filled 
with the new fleet that was being built for this purpose. 
With this fleet Alexander made a trial cruise on the 
Euphrates ; on his return to Babylon he received 20,000 
more troops from different tribes of Persia, which he 
incorporated in the Phalanx, keeping Macedonians in the 
first three ranks and in the rear rank. The time had now 
come for the funeral of Hephaestion, which was celebrated 
with vast expense and magnificence ; but after the funeral 
feast which followed, Alexander was, like Heplnrstion, 
seized with fever from the very same cause ; he rapidly 



CONQUEST OF THE EAST 325 

grew worse and after eleven days died, in the thirty-third 
year of his age and the thirteenth of his reign (June, b.c. 
323). On his last day, as he lay unable to move or speak, 
some of the soldiers were permitted to walk past his bed, 
that they might see him once more alive, and he could only 
recognise them with his eyes. As he left no children, the 
question arose who would be his successor, and his last act 
was to give his ring to his oldest general, Perdiccas. 

Such was the end of the man, who, by the time he was 
thirty, had made himself the greatest conqueror that the 
world has ever seen. To his contemporaries his conquests 
must have seemed far more wonderful than they do to us. 
To his military skill he added an intrepid courage, a gener- 
ous heart and great charm of manner, with a wonderful 
power of government and organisation : but beneath all lay 
concealed the savagery of his Macedonian birth, breaking 
out from time to time. 



CHAPTER XL 



GREECE DURING ALEXANDER'S REIGN : THE LAMIAN WAR 

Dates. B.C. 

Defeat of the Spartans by Antipater, . . . 331 

Speech of Demosthenes ' On the Crown,' . . 330 

Harpalus at Athens. 324 

Eevolt of the Greeks : the Lamian War, . . 323 
Battle of Crannon : submission of the Greeks. 

Death of Demosthenes, . . . . . 322 



Chief Names. — Antipater, Demosthenes, iEschines,! 
Leosthenes, Phocion. 

The exemplary punishment of Thebes by Alexander (see 
p. 305) made Antipater's task of keeping Greece quiet, on 
the whole, an easy one : the only trouble came from 
Sparta, which, having made no real effort to help Athens to 
resist Philip's aggressions, now in B.C. 331, when Alexander 
was in the midst of his victorious career, took up arms with- 
out any apparent hope of success. Eeinforced by Greek 
mercenaries who had been serving under the Persians, and 
by many of the Arcadians, they besieged Megalopolis, but 
were totally defeated by Antipater with the loss of their 
king, Agis. How the Spartans were punished for this 
outbreak we do not know, but when the news of it reached 
Alexander, he is said to have observed to his officers, ' It 
seems, gentlemen, that, while we have been conquering 
Darius, there has been a battle of mice in Arcadia, 5 The 
following year at Athens, the duel between Demosthenes 

326 



GREECE DURING ALEXANDER'S REIGN 327 

and his rival, iEschines, which began at the time of the 
famous embassy to Philip (see p. 294), was brought to a 
conclusion ; the year after Chseronea, a citizen named 
Ctesiphon proposed that a crown (or rather, a wreath) 
should be voted to Demosthenes for his great services to 
his country, whereupon .ZEschines prosecuted him for 
making an unconstitutional proposal (see p. 140, ypa(j)rj 
7rapav6jji(ov) ; but it was not till B.C. 330 that he ventured 
to bring the matter before the court of law. His speech 
'against Ctesiphon 5 was really an attack on the whole 
policy of Demosthenes, who replied with such effect in the 
speech 'On the Crown,' which may be regarded as the 
funeral oration of Athenian liberty, that ZEschines did 
not obtain even one-fifth of the votes, and therefore, by 
the law of Athens, was liable to a fine of 1000 drachmas 
(about .£30) ; but sooner than pay the fine, and witness 
the triumph of his hated rival, he quitted Athens and 
ended his life as a teacher of rhetoric at Khodes. 

Six years after this memorable trial, Harpalus, fleeing 
from his satrapy of Babylon, to escape the wrath of 
Alexander (see p. 323), came to Athens. For some time 
he had been seeking to make himself popular among the 
Athenians by sending them presents of corn ; he now tried 
to induce them to take up his cause, and for that purpose 
employed some of the treasure-money he had brought with 
him in bribery. But at this time Alexander had returned 
from his campaigns, and was at the height of his power, 
so that the risk seemed too great, even to Demosthenes, 
and he joined with Phocion in counselling the people to 
reject the overtures of Harpalus. A demand soon came 
from Antipater for the surrender of Harpalus ; the 
Athenians at first refused, but afterwards threw him into 
prison, and lodged his treasure in the Acropolis. Harpalus 
escaped, probably with the connivance of the Athenians, 
and was murdered soon afterwards in Crete ; but, when the 



328 HISTORY OF GREECE 

treasure was examined, it was found to be only half the 
original sum stated by Harpalus ; several of the orators, 
including Demosthenes, were accused of having received 
bribes, and Demosthenes, though he had acted against 
Harpalus, was convicted, unjustly we must hope, and went 
into banishment. 

Within a year came the news of Alexander's death. 
Greece was at once in a ferment of excitement. The 
patriotic party at Athens regained their ascendency, and, 
in spite of the protest of Phocion, it was resolved to 
prepare for war and make every effort for liberty. Envoys 
were sent to all the states of Greece : Sparta, still crippled 
by her last ill-timed effort, refused her aid, as did the 
Arcadians, who looked to the Macedonians as their pro- 
tectors as formerly Thebes had been. But many of the 
smaller states sent contingents ; a considerable army under 
Leosthenes, an Athenian general, advanced through the 
pass of Thermopylae, and defeated Antipater a little north 
of it, owing to the desertion of his Thessalian cavalry 
(b.c. 323). Unbounded was the joy at Athens at this 
success, and Demosthenes, who in his exile had been 
working in aid of the revolt, was recalled and received 
an enthusiastic welcome. 

Antipater, after his defeat, threw himself into the neigh- 
bouring town of Lamia, whence this war is called the 
Lamian War. Leosthenes was killed in the siege of Lamia : 
reinforcements came pouring in from Asia, and after one 
more victory the Greeks were finally defeated near Crannon, 
a town in the centre of Thessaly (August B.C. 322). The 
battle, in spite of the superior numbers of Antipater, was 
not very decisive ; but one by one the Greek states became 
alarmed, and made terms, and soon Athens, exposed to the 
invasion of the whole Macedonian army, was obliged to 
submit. Phocion negotiated the terms of submission, which 
were, that a Macedonian garrison should be admitted into 



GREECE DURING ALEXANDER'S REIGN 329 

Munychia, Demosthenes and the other patriotic orators 
surrendered, and the poorer citizens should be deprived of 
their citizenship and banished from Attica. In accordance 
with this provision 12,000 citizens were transported to 
Thrace, Africa, and Italy, while 9000 remained in Attica. 
Phocion and his party were now supreme at Athens, sup- 
ported by Antipater. Demosthenes fled, but, unable to 
escape the emissaries of Antipater, he took poison which he 
had concealed in a writing-reed. Thus, after a lifelong 
struggle against the rising power of Macedon, the danger of 
which he was the first to see, died the greatest orator and 
one of the most patriotic statesmen of Greece. He lived 
long enough to see the utter failure of all his hopes, and his 
beloved Athens humbled by the presence of a foreign 
garrison. 



CHAPTER XLI 



THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER 

Dates B.C. 
Coalition of the other Generals against Perdiccas. 

Perdiccas mnrdered by Seleucus, who obtains 

his dominions, 321 

Cassander seizes Greece and Macedonia, . . 318 

Coalition of the other Generals against Antigonns, 316 
Demetrius Poliorcetes, son of Antigonus, takes 

Athens, 307 

Antigonns assumes the title of King, . . . 306 
Battle of Ipsus : Death of Antigonus. Lysi- 

inachus and Seleucus divide his kingdom, . 301 

Demetrius seizes Macedonia, .... 29-1 
Demetrius driven out by Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. 

Pyrrhus driven out by Lysimachus, . . . 287 

Lysimachus defeated and slain by Seleucus, . 281 

Invasion of the East by the Gauls, . . . 280 

Antigonus, son of Demetrius, seizes Macedonia, . 278 

Antigonus driven out by Pyrrhus, . . . 27-i 

Death of Pyrrhus : Antigonus recovers Macedonia, 272 

Chief Names — Perdiccas, Ptolemy, Antigonus, Lysimachus, 

Antipater, Eumenes, Seleucus, Cassander, Demetrius, 

Poliorcetes, Pyrrhus, Antigonus, Gonatas. 

In Asia, as might be expected, all was confusion. Soon 
after Alexander's death Roxana gave birth to a son, to 
whom the name Alexander was given, and for whom she 
was anxious to secure the succession, and he also left a 
half-brother named Philip Arrhidams, who, however, was 

330 



THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER 331 

half-witted. The leading generals were all aiming at the 
throne, and naturally jealous of one another ; and Alex- 
ander's mother Olympias, who on his death fled to her 
native Epirus owing to her bitter enmity against Antipater, 
had also ambitious designs. Thus there ensued a long 
period of intrigue, murder, and war, till at length from 
the ruins of Alexander's empire there arose three king- 
doms : (1) Macedonia with Greece, (2) Syria, including most 
of the old Persian Empire, and (3) Egypt. 

The first arrangement was that Perdiccas should govern 
Babylon and the East as regent on behalf of Philip 
Arrhidseus and the infant Alexander, while of the other 
generals Ptolemy held Egypt as satrap, Antigonus Asia 
Minor and Syria, Lysimachus Thrace, Antipater Mace- 
donia, and a Greek named Eumenes was given the still 
unsubdued country south of the Euxine. 

The troubles began with the murder by Roxana of 
Alexander's other wife Statira, the daughter of Darius. 
Then Perdiccas began to intrigue for the throne ; sup- 
ported by Eumenes he made an alliance with Olympias 
on the understanding that he should marry her daughter 
Cleopatra (see p. 303), now a widow. Immediately the 
other generals led by Antigonus combined against Perdiccas 
and Eumenes, and civil war broke out ; Antipater invaded 
from the Hellespont, but his army was defeated by Eumenes, 
a most able soldier ; Perdiccas, however, after an unsuccess- 
ful attempt against Ptolemy in Egypt, was murdered by 
his own troops under an officer named Seleucus, owing to 
his unpopularity. Antipater now became regent, and 
Seleucus was rewarded with the satrapy of Perdiccas. The 
war was continued against Eumenes ; he fought bravely 
and skilfully, but, weakened by the treachery of his Mace- 
donian officers, who hated him as a Greek, was at last 
compelled to take refuge in a fortress. 

In B.C. 318 Antipater died, and left as regent after him 



332 HISTORY OF GREECE 

not his son Cassander, but a general named Polysperchon. 
Thereupon Cassander obtained the support of Antigonus, 
and at once began to intrigue against Polysperchon ; he 
succeeded in placing one of his own officers in command of 
the Macedonian garrison of Munychia, and by the aid, it is 
said, of Phocion obtained possession of the Peiraeus, thus 
drawing Athens into this miserable strife. Polysperchon 
tried to win over the Greeks by restoring the free govern- 
ments which Antipater had overthrown after the Lamian 
war, and by recalling the exiles. The Athenian exiles came 
back very bitter against Phocion, whom they considered the 
cause of their exile ; he was accused of treason, for helping 
Cassander, and fled to Polysperchon, who was now in 
Greece. But Polysperchon, who was anxious to please the 
Athenians, in order to obtain possession of the Peiraeus, 
gave him up. He and four friends were brought to Athens, 
and condemned to death by a vast majority ; his last 
words to his son before his death were, ' Tell him not to 
think evil of the Athenians' (b.c. 317). Phocion was 
eighty-five years old at the time of his death ; his one aim 
had been to do his duty to his country, but he thought that 
that duty consisted in securing it peace and prosperity, not 
in maintaining a hopeless struggle for foreign dominion, 
or even political freedom ; therefore he was content to 
see Athens gradually fall under the Macedonian yoke, and 
even helped in holding her in subjection. 

Cassander now arrived in Greece with a fleet and army 
obtained from Antigonus ; he defeated Polysperchon and 
restored the Peiroeus to the Athenians, who thereupon 
espoused his cause ; but they gained little from the change, 
for Cassander set up an oligarchical government under a 
man named Demetrius of Phalerum. Polysperchon re- 
treated from Greece, and joined Olympias, who, with Eoxana 
and the infant Alexander, was still in Epirus. In the spring 
of b.c. 317 they invaded Macedonia, and seized Philip 



THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER 333 

Arrhidseus and his wife, who had taken the side of 
Cassander. Olympias had them cruelly put to death, and 
then took vengeance on all Cassander's relations and ad- 
herents. But next year Cassander invaded Macedonia, 
besieged the royal ladies in Pydna, and forced them to 
surrender. The savage Olympias he put to death ; Koxana 
and the infant king he shut up in Amphipolis. Of Poly- 
sperchon little more is heard. 

Meanwhile, in Asia, the gallant Eumenes had again been 
fighting desperately for the royal family against the over- 
whelming forces of Antigonus ; but a second time the 
treachery of his officers ruined him ; he was betrayed to 
Antigonus and put to death, B.C. 316. His death left 
Antigonus so powerful that he, like Perdiccas, began to 
aim at mounting the throne of Alexander ; whereupon 
the other generals, including Cassander, attacked him 
just as they had before attacked Perdiccas (b.c. 315). 
For four years a fierce war raged, in which the unhappy 
Greeks suffered as usual. Neither side won any decisive 
success, and in b.c. 311, exhausted by the struggle, they 
made peace. Antigonus was to be supreme in Asia, and 
Cassander was to have Macedonia until the infant 
Alexander came of age ; whereupon he sent to Amphi- 
polis, and had him and his mother put to death 
(b.c 311). Cleopatra, the sister of Alexander, who was to 
have married Perdiccas, still survived, but in b.c. 308 she 
was murdered by Antigonus, when about to go to Egypt 
to marry his rival Ptolemy, and the family of Alexander 
the Great was blotted out. 

The war broke out again after a year's peace, and in b.c. 
307 Demetrius, son of Antigonus, sailed to Greece and 
seized the Peirseus with his fleet, before Demetrius of 
Phalerum, Cassander's adherent, could stop him. Having 
declared that he had come to free Athens from''. the yoke of 
Cassander, he won over the Athenians, and Demetrius of 



334 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Phalerum fled into exile. Then, having stormed Munychia 

and destroyed its fortifications, that it might never more be 

a menace to the Athenians, he made his entry into the city ; 

he was received with a most enthusiastic welcome, and the 

degenerate Athenians paid divine honours to both him and 

his father, Antigonus. The next year he sailed to Cyprus 

and besieged the town of Salamis, where he won a great 

naval victory over Ptolemy, who was coming to its relief. 

Encouraged by his son's great success, Antigonus assumed 

the title of king, and his example was at once followed 

by the other generals. Demetrius, after an unsuccessful 

attempt on Egypt, then attacked Rhodes as a punishment 

for not helping him in Cyprus. His siege of Ehodes lasted 

for a whole year, and, owing to the novelty and vastness of 

the engines employed, gained for him the name of Poliorcetes 

(Uo\LopKT]Tr]Sj the besieger) ; but all his efforts were baffled, 

so he made peace with the Ehodians and returned to Greece. 

There he drove back Cassander, who was besieging Athens, 

and defeated him near Thermopylae. But, in b.c. 301, he 

and his father were totally defeated by Lysimachus, Seleucus, 

and Ptolemy at Ipsus in Phrygia. Antigonus was killed at 

the age of eighty-one, and Demetrius Poliorcetes became for 

a time a wanderer, even Athens now refusing to receive 

him. Lysimachus and Seleucus divided the territories of 

Antigonus between them ; Lysimachus taking most of 

Asia Minor, and Seleucus Syria, where he founded the 

great sea-port of Seleucia, named after himself, and twelve 

miles inland, the still more famous Antioch (named after 

his father), which he made his capital. Cassander kept 

Macedonia and Greece. Athens again fell into his hands, 

and he sent a man named Lachares over the government, 

who proved a cruel tyrant. Thus the number of kingdoms 

was reduced to four, Macedonia, Thrace, Syria with the 

East, Egypt. 

Seleucus and Ptolemy were now firmly established in the 



THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER 335 

kingdoms which they had carved out for themselves with 
the sword, and both founded dynasties which ruled in 
Syria and Egypt until they fell before the advancing power 
of Eome. The. descendants of Seleucus in Syria bore either 
his name or that of his father, Antiochus ; these were the 
kings against whom the Jews fought so bravely for their 
religious liberty under Judas Maccabseus and his famous 
brothers. These kings of Syria did not long retain the 
distant Eastern conquests of Alexander. The first to go was 
the Punjaub kingdom, over which Alexander had made the 
noble-minded Porus king. After the death of Alexander 
there was confusion in this kingdom ; Porus was murdered 
and the throne seized by an usurper, who threw off his 
allegiance to the Macedonians. Seleucus, whose energies 
were occupied with this war against Antigonus, was 
obliged to acknowledge the independence of this new 
kingdom, which increased till it embraced all the north of 
India, and had a most flourishing existence for some 
centuries. Then, about B.C. 250, Bactria, Sogdiana, and the 
neighbouring countries revolted and founded another 
kingdom ; soon after which, the Parthians, a -tribe of 
savage archers, dwelling in the deserts south-east of the 
Caspian, revolted, and set up a barbarian kingdom, which 
gradually conquered all its neighbours, and extended from 
the Euphrates to the borders of India, defying even the 
mighty power of the Eoman Empire. 

Macedonia was for some time longer the scene of discord 
and bloodshed. Cassander himself died in possession of 
the kingdom (b.c. 297) ; but, after the death of his eldest 
son, Philip (b.c. 295), a dispute arose between his two 
younger sons, Antipater and Alexander. Alexander 
appealed for aid to Demetrius Poliorcetes, who, having 
given his daughter in marriage to Seleucus, had recovered 
from his downfall, and had lately taken Athens after a 
long and terrible siege. Demetrius marched into Macedonia, 



336 HISTORY OF GREECE 

caused Alexander to be assassinated, and made himself 
king (b.c. 294). This act of aggression brought against 
him a coalition of the other kings, Lysimachus, Seleucus, 
and Ptolemy, aided by Pyrrhus, a young Epirot prince, 
related to Olympias, who had lately won for himself the 
throne of Epirus, and who afterwards became famous from 
his war against Rome. Pyrrhus had been a comrade of 
Demetrius and fought on his side at Ipsus, but, having 
taken up the cause of Antipater, now fought against him. 
Demetrius was at length driven out of Macedonia after a 
seven years' reign (b.c. 287), and, falling into the hands of his 
son-in-law, Seleucus, was kept in honourable captivity until 
his death (b.c. 283). Pyrrhus tried to make himself king, 
but after seven months was driven out by Lysimachus, who 
added Macedonia to his existing dominions, thus reducing 
the number of kingdoms to three. But a war broke out 
between him and Seleucus, and he was defeated and slain 
b.c. 281) at the age of eighty. Seleucus thus added Asia 
Minor to his dominions, but before he could take possession 
of Macedonia, he was treacherously murdered by Ptolemy 
Ceraunus, an exiled son of Ptolemy of Egypt, whom he 
had befriended (b.c. 280). He was succeeded in his 
kingdom by his son Antiochus. Ptolemy Ceraunus now 
seized the Macedonian throne, but almost immediately 
he was slain in battle against the Gauls ; who at this time 
invaded the East in great hordes, and finally crossing into 
Asia Minor, settled in the district which was called after 
them, Galatia. 

After two years of confusion, Antigonus Gonatas, son 
of Demetrius Poliorcetes, seized the throne of Macedonia 
in b.c. 278, but was driven out in b.c. 274 by Pyrrhus, 
who, returning defeated from Italy, tried to console 
himself by conquest at home. The war between the 
two rivals continued in Greece ; Pyrrhus attacked Argos, 
to the relief of which Antigonus came, and, in the 



THE SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER 337 

street fighting that ensued, Pyrrhus was struck by a tile, 
hurled by a woman from a house-top, and died (b.c. 272). 
Antigonus now established himself firmly on the Macedonian 
throne, and his successors ruled there until they also were 
overthrown by the Komans, as will be described presently. 

Thus the career and conquests of Alexander resulted in 
the extinction of the royal dynasty of Macedonia, and the 
rise of three half- Greek kingdoms, Macedonia, Syria and 
Egypt, on the thrones of which sat the descendants of 
his three generals, Antigonus, Seleucus, and Ptolemy. 



CHAPTER XLI1 

THE ACH.EAN AND ^ETOLIAX LEAGUES 
AND CONQUEST OF GREECE BY THE ROMANS 

Dates. B.C. 

Rise of the Achaean League, 280 

Rise of the iEtolian. League, . . . (about) 250 

Sparta attacks the Achaean League. Battle of 

Sellasia. End of the Spartan Monarchy, . 221 
Philip v. , king of Macedonia, defeats the iEtolian 

League, 217 

Alliance between ^Etolian League and Rome, . 211 

Battle of Cynoscephalae, 197 

Proclamation of the Freedom of Greece by 

Flamininus, 196 

Battle of Magnesia, 190 

Battle of Pydna. Macedonia made a Roman 

Province, 168 

Mummius destroys Corinth. Greece made part 

of the Province of Macedonia, .... 146 

Syria made a Roman Province, .... 63 

Egypt made a Roman Province, .... 30 

Chief Names, — Aratus, Cleomenes,- Philip v., Flamininus, 
Philopcemen, Perseus, Mummius, Mithridates, Cleopatra. 

The confusion and troubles which attended the foundation 
of this second kingdom of Macedonia naturally weakened 
its hold on Greece, and permitted the rise of two independent 
powers, the Achaean and -ffitolian Leagues, which for about a 
century kept alive the expiring flame of Greek liberty. 

338 



7 HE ACHMAN AND MTOLIAN LEAGUES 339 

The Achseans, on the southern shore of the Corinthian 
Gulf, have as yet hardly been mentioned, so insignificant 
a part did they play in Greek politics ; but when the great 
states, Athens, Sparta, and Thebes, had exhausted their 
energies, the cities of Achcea began to assert themselves, 
and in b.c. 280 reconstituted the federal league which had 
once existed among them, and declared themselves in- 
dependent. In b.c. 251 the Dorian city of Sicyon was 
brought into the league by its leading citizen, Aratus, an 
able statesman, and a brave, though not very successful, 
general. Aratus was repeatedly elected Strategus (President 
and Commander-in-chief) of the League and raised it to 
considerable power ; he surprised Corinth by night . and 
united it to the League. Athens and several cities and states 
of the Peloponnese also joined the League, but Sparta, accord- 
ing to her usual practice, held aloof from any combination. 

North of the Corinthian Gulf, the iEtolian mountain 
tribes, less refined but braver than the Achseans, also 
revived an ancient league, which grew till it included most 
of Northern Greece, and had alliances with some Pelopon- 
nesian cities. 

There was great jealousy between the Leagues, and the 
Achasans had another bitter enemy in Sparta. Sparta, 
which, as has been mentioned, had preserved her inde- 
pendence even during the reign of Alexander, owing to her 
strong and remote position, had fallen into a sadly 
degenerate state on account of the growth of luxury and 
the decay of the institutions of Lycurgus. In b.c. 244 
Agis iv. became one of the kings, and attempted to 
reform the state by re-establishing the institutions of 
Lycurgus and other changes ; but he met with great 
resistance from his colleague, Leonidas, and the wealthy 
Spartans, and was thrown into prison and put to death 
(b.c. 240). Leonidas was succeeded by his [son, Cleomenes 
in. (b.c. 236), the last great Spartan. The son of Agis 



340 HISTORY OF GREECE 

now returned to Sparta, but was put to death by his father's 
enemies, according to some accounts by Cleomenes himself, 
and with him one of the two royal families came to an end. 
Cleomenes, however, though the son of Agis's opponent, 
successfully carried out the reforms which he had attempted ; 
and, as a result, the strength of Sparta was greatly increased. 
Cleomenes next attacked the Achaean League, in order to 
regain the Spartan supremacy in the Peloponnese : and 
thus the closing years of Greek freedom were cursed by the 
fatal spirit of disunion which brought into conflict two 
great statesmen, Cleomenes and Aratus, who, fighting side 
by side, might have driven the Macedonians out of Greece. 

So hard pressed was Aratus by the military skill of 
Cleomenes and renewed vigour of Sparta, that he was at 
last driven to the humiliating course of calling in Antigonus 
Doson, the king of Macedonia, and on the fatal field of 
Sellasia in Arcadia, Cleomenes was totally defeated, and 
Sparta, for the first time in her history, taken (b.c. 221). 
Cleomenes himself fled to Egypt, where he put an end to 
his own life (b.c. 220) ; with him ended the second royal 
line, and Sparta fell under the sway of a series of usurping 
tyrants, and sank to an even lower point than before the 
reforms of Cleomenes. 

The Achseans continued their struggles with the ^Etolians, 
and had a powerful but dangerous ally in Philip v., who 
succeeded to the throne of Macedonia (b.c. 220). He 
defeated the iEtolians and made peace with them (b.c. 217), 
but in b.c. 213, fearing that Aratus might be an obstacle to 
his ambitious designs, he caused him to be murdered. Now, 
however, a mightier power was beginning to appear on the 
scene : the great republic on the Tiber, which sixty years 
before had given Pyrrhus such a rude reception in Italy. 
Since the defeat of Pyrrhus, Rome had waged a long and 
victorious war against the Carthaginians, the old enemies of 
the Greeks of Sicily, and had made Sicily itself a Roman 



THE A CH^EAN AND M TO LI AN LEA G UES 34 1 

Province. Her arms might at any moment be expected in 
Greece ; but, at the time of Philip's accession, Eome was 
again assailed by the Carthaginians under their great soldier, 
Hannibal, and such wonderful reports came to Greece of 
the great victories won by Hannibal in Italy that Philip 
made an alliance with the Carthaginians and declared war 
against Eome. The Romans accordingly made alliance with 
the iEtolians (b.c 211), but they were too much occupied 
with their desperate struggle for existence against Hannibal 
to undertake anything of importance in Greece ; when, 
however, after their great victory at Zama, they had 
dictated peace to Carthage (b.c. 201), they renewed the 
war against Philip, and, for the first time, a consular 
army of Koman legionaries trod the soil of Greece. After 
some indecisive campaigns, the two armies met at 
Cynoscephalse in Thessaly ; the legion proved again its 
superiority over the phalanx. Philip was totally defeated, 
and obtained peace on condition of abandoning Greece 
and all his possessions outside Macedonia (b.c. 197). The 
next year at the Isthmian Games, the Roman consul, 
Flaminmus, proclaimed amid universal enthusiasm that 
Greece again was free. But this gift of freedom was a 
mere mockery ; Greece, delivered from Macedonia, was 
now absolutely in the power of Rome. The first to feel 
her heavy hand were the iEtolians ; these ignorant 
mountaineers believing that they, not the Romans, had had 
the greater share in the conquest of Philip were grievously 
disappointed when the peace brought them no addition of 
territory. When, therefore, the Roman army left Greece, 
they appealed for aid to Antiochus, surnamed the Great, 
king of Syria, who was already at variance with Rome. 
In b.c. 192 Antiochus came to Greece, but, after a defeat 
at Thermopylae, he was driven out, and in the great battle 
of Magnesia, [near Ephesus, the Romans totally defeated 
him, with hardly any loss to themselves (b.c. 190). 



342 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Antiochus was obliged to accept peace on humiliating 
terms ; and the iEtolians, left without an ally, were 
driven into the town of Ambracia, where, after a gallant 
resistance, they were compelled to surrender, and became 
the subject allies of Kome (b.c. 189). Such was the end of 
the iEtolian League. 

Meanwhile, in the Achaean League, after the death of 
Aratus a still greater statesman had come to the front. 
This was Philopoemen, a native of Megalopolis. He 
fought successfully against the tyrants of Sparta ; but 
he was wise enough not to come into conflict with the 
Eomans, whose great power he fully recognised. Therefore 
in the war between Kome and Philip, when the Eomans 
proposed alliance with the Achaeans, he persuaded them 
to accept it, although there was a large party in favour 
of Macedon ; he also aided the Romans again in their 
war against Antiochus and the ^Etolians. 

He succeeded at last in inducing Sparta, which had 
lately got rid of the last of its tyrants, to join the League 
(b.c. 192) ; and its example was followed by Elis and 
Messenia. But a quarrel soon broke out and the Spartans 
declared their independence ; then Philopoemen marched 
against Sparta and took it ; he restored the exiles driven 
out by the tyrants and expelled the mercenaries whom 
they had introduced ; and having destroyed the walls, and 
abolished the Spartan laws, united the city again to the 
Achaean League. Not long afterwards the Messenians also 
left the League ; and Philopoemen attacking them was 
defeated, taken prisoner, and put to death by poison. 
Thus, in his seventy-first year, died the last great Greek 
statesman. The Achaeans avenged his death by capturing 
Messene the next year, and compelled the Messenians to 
rejoin the League (b.c. 183). 

Philip died in b.c. 179, having during the latter years of his 
reign re-organised his army in order to try conclusions once 



THE ACHAEAN AND MTOLIAN LEAGUES 343 

more with Kome. He was succeeded by his son Perseus, the 
last king of Macedon, who continued the warlike prepara- 
tions ; and the Komans becoming alarmed declared war on 
him (b.c. 171). Both the iEtolian and Achaean Leagues were 
forced to help them, and in b.c. 168 Perseus was totally 
defeated in the battle of Pydna ; he fled from the field but 
was captured, and, after being led in the triumphal procession 
of the victorious general, dragged out a few years of miserable 
existence in Italy, dying, according to some accounts, of self- 
starvation. The ancient realm of Macedon, the kingdom of 
Philip and Alexander which first trampled on the liberties 
of Greece, was broken up into four districts inhabited only 
by wretched husbandmen, and all the officers and leading 
men were carried off to Italy. Later on Macedon was made 
into a single Koman Province. 

After the battle of Pydna, the Eomans set up their 
partisans in all the states of Greece. In the Achaean 
League there had always been a large party hostile to 
Eome, and the Eomans, on the charge of lukewarmness in 
the war against Perseus, carried off a thousand of the lead- 
ing men to Italy, among whom was the historian Polybius, 
our chief authority for the history of the time. Polybius be- 
came friendly with several of the leading Eomans, and by his " 
influence the exiles at length obtained leave to return to their 
native land (b.c. 150). They found Greece in a wretched 
state, poverty-stricken, and torn by petty dissensions. 

The Achaean League very soon became involved in a fresh 
quarrel with Sparta, and both sides appealed to Eome. 
The Eomans after some delay sent an ambassador to 
Corinth, who proclaimed that Sparta, Corinth, and all 
other states which were not Achaean must leave the League. 
This produced a' furious burst of indignation, and the League 
determined to fight ; but it was no match for the Koman 
legions. The Greeks were easily defeated, the final battle 
taking place at the Isthmus ; after which the Koman 



344 HISTORY OF GREECE 

general Mummius took Corinth, and, by the express orders of 
the Senate, utterly destroyed it ; all the inhabitants who 
had not already fled were slain or sold into slavery : the 
pictures, statues, and other works of art were carried off 
to Kome. A few of the leaders of the revolt were put to 
death, but otherwise the Komans took no cruel vengeance. 
They left each state its own government ; but they were 
obliged to disband their armies and pay tribute, and al] 
were subject to the Governor of Macedonia (b.c. 146). 

The Koman Conquest came as a relief to most of the 
Greeks, weary of the wretched bickerings of the petty states 
which kept the country in a perpetual state of unrest. For 
many years there was peace, the Koman wars were in the 
West ; but in b.c. 90, Mithridates, an able barbarian who 
ruled over the kingdom of Pontus in south-east shore of 
the Euxine, rose against Kome and overran Asia Minor, 
massacring in one day, it is said, 80,000 Komans. From 
Asia Minor he came to Greece, and many of the Greeks, 
including Athens, joined him as a deliverer. But the 
famous Koman general Sulla soon came, beat Mithridates 
in two great battles in Bceotia, and drove him out of Greece; 
and Athens was besieged and stormed. The East still 
continued in a disturbed state ; the Mediterranean and 
iEgean swarmed with pirates, and Mithridates broke out 
again ; till at last the Komans commissioned their great 
general Pompeius to restore order. He speedily cleared 
the sea of the pirates, and finally crushed Mithridates ; he 
then put an end to the kingdom of Syria which had been 
left independent after the battle of Magnesia, but had been 
growing feebler and feebler ever since, and made it into a 
Koman Province (b.c. 63.) 

Egypt, the last of the kingdoms founded by Alexander's 
generals, still survived, being preserved by its remoteness 
from the attacks of the Komans. The line of the Ptolemies 
ended with the beautiful but wicked queen Cleopatra, 



THE ACH&AN AND MTOLIAN LEAGUES 345 



whose fatal fascination enslaved the Roman Antonius and 

lost him the victory in his struggle for Empire with Octavius. 
After their defeat in the great sea-fight of Actium, the 

queen and her lover committed suicide, and Octavius 
made Egypt a Roman Province (b.c. 30). 

Alexander the Great and Conquest of the 

East by the Romans. 

b.c 

Alexander invades Persia. Battle of the Granicus, 334 

Battle of Issus, 333 

Battle of Arbela, 331 

Death of Darius. End of the Persian Monarchy, 330 

Alexander in India, 326 

Death of Alexander. Lamian War in Greece, . 323 

Battle of Crannon, 322 

Murder of Perdiccas. Commencement of Wars 

among the Generals, 321 

Antigonus assumes the title of King, . ... 306 

Battle of Ipsus, 301 

Revival of the Achaean League in Greece, . . 280 
Antigonus Gonatas makes himself King of 

Macedonia 272 

Battle of Sellasia : end of the Spartan Monarchy, 221 

Battle of Cynoscephalae, ..... 197 

Proclamation of Greek Freedom by Flamininus, . 196 

Battle of Magnesia, 190 

Battle of Pydna. Macedonia made a Roman 

Province, 168 

Syria made a Roman Province, .... 63 

Egypt made a Roman Province, .... 30 

Contemporary Events. 
The West. 

B.C. 

Conquest of the Samnites by Rome, . . . 290 

Defeat of Pyrrhus by Rome, .... 275 

Conquest of Southern Italy by Rome, . . . 272 

First Punic War between Rome and Carthage, . 264-242 

Second Punic War, 218-202 

Destruction of Carthage, 146 



CHAPTER XLIII 



SICILY AXD THE WEST 



Dates. B.C. 

Invasion of Sicily by the Carthaginians, . . 409 

Capture of Agrigentum, ..... 406 

Dionysius makes himself Tyrant of Syracuse, . 405 

Siege of Syracuse by the Carthaginians, . . 396 

Dionysius succeeded by Dionysins' the Younger, . 367 

Timoleon comes to Syracuse and expels Dionysins, 344 

Battle of the Crimisus, 339 

Archidamus killed fighting for Tarentum against 

the Lucanians, 338 

Agathocles makes himself Tyrant of Syracuse, . 317 

Tarentum invites Pyrrhus to help it against Rome, 282 
Defeat of Pyrrhus. Conquest of Italian Greeks 

by Rome, 272 

Hiero becomes King of Syracuse, .... 270 

The Romans drive the Carthaginians out of Sicily, 242 

Death of Hiero, 216 

Siege of Syracuse by the Romans, . . ; 210 

Sicily made a Roman Province, .... 201 

Chief Characters. — Dionysius, Dionysius the Younger, Dion. 

Timoleon, Agathocles, Archidamus, Alexander of 

Epirus, Pyrrhus, Hiero, Hieronymus. 

It is now time to trace the fortunes of the Greeks in Sicily 
during the years succeeding the great deliverance of 
Syracuse from the invading armament of Athens (b.c 413). 
Overjoyed as the Syracusans were at their crowning triumph, 

346 



SICILY AND THE WEST 347 

they were destined for many years to come to suffer 
troubles far greater than an Athenian dominion would have 
inflicted, and from which it might have saved them, — 
troubles from discord and tyranny at home, and from the 
Carthaginian foe without. Gelo's great victory at Himera 
(b.c. 480; see p. 115), and perhaps the great naval power 
of Athens had kept Carthage, during seventy years, from 
making any attacks on Sicily, where she only retained the 
important sea -port of Panormus and one or two other 
towns. But in B.C. 409, four years after the defeat of the 
Athenians, Carthaginians came again ; and the struggle 
which now began, and was marked by horrible ferocity 
and appalling loss of life, lasted with interruptions over a 
hundred years, and resulted, after many changes of fortune, 
in the conquest by the Carthaginians of the western part of 
the island ; nor did it finally end until both sides fell before 
the rising power of Eome, about a hundred years before 
their fellow-countrymen in Greece shared the same fate. 

The cause of the renewed invasion of the Carthaginians 
was the same fatal quarrel between Selinus and Egesta 
which had brought the Athenians to Sicily (see p. 189). 
The Egestaeans, deprived of the protection of the Athenians, 
and again hard pressed by Selinus, appealed in despair to 
Carthage ; and Hannibal, grandson of Hamilcar who fell at 
Himera, came with a huge host of over 100,000 mercenaries ; 
after taking and ruthlessly sacking first Selinus and then 
Himera, where he slaughtered 3000 prisoners as a sacrifice 
to the spirit of his grandfather, he sailed off. Three years 
later he returned and besieged Agrigentum, the second city 
of the island : a large army from Syracuse and other cities 
was collected in its defence, desperate fighting took place, a 
horrible pestilence broke out in the crowded Carthaginian 
camp which carried off Hannibal himself, but his colleague 
Himilco, in the end, took the city by famine and utterly 
destroyed it, most of the inhabitants escaping (b.c. 406). 



348 HISTORY OF GREECE 

The Syracusans were greatly annoyed at this defeat, and 
a young and energetic man named Dionysius, taking advan- 
tage of this feeling, persuaded them to depose the generals 
and nominate him sole general (b.c. 405). Armed with 
this power, he next obtained a bodyguard of mercenaries 
and so made himself tyrant of Syracuse, expelling or 
slaying all his political opponents, and, amid many vicissi- 
tudes of fortune, maintained his position for thirty-eight 
years till his death. Being unsuccessful against the 
Carthaginians he made peace, giving up to them the west 
of Sicily with Agrigentum, Himera, and Selinus on condi- 
tion that they recognised him as ruler of Syracuse. To secure 
himself against his subjects he strongly fortified Ortygia (see 
map p. 194), making it a citadel from which he could 
command the rest of the city. He extended his power over 
all the east of Sicily and then began to prepare for another 
war with Carthage ; to secure the city against a siege he 
enclosed the whole of Epipola? with fortifications ; he levied 
fresh troops, made fresh docks, and built a new fleet of 
ships of five and four banks of oars (quinqueremes and 
qua drir ernes) instead of the old-fashioned triremes. Then 
he declared war, and the Greek subjects of the Carthaginians 
rose in revolt and cruelly massacred them in revenge for the 
sack of Selinus and Himera. Dionysius advanced to the west 
of Sicily and obtained some success, but Himilco landed with 
an army from Carthage, drove Dionysius back to Syracuse, 
defeated the Syracusan fleet, and besieged Syracuse itself. 
The Syracusans were very bitter against Dionysius for 
his failure, and his position was for a time critical, but 
fortunately a pestilence broke out in the besieging army 
crowded together in the damp marsh land in the plain of the 
Anapus, and Dionysius attacked them by sea and land and 
set fire to their camp. Himilco with a few troops fled to 
Carthage by a secret agreement with Dionysius, and left 
the remains of his army to its fate (b.c. 396). This disaster 



SICILY AND THE WEST 349 

crippled Carthage for some years, and Dionysius was able 
to extend his power over nearly the whole of Sicily ; after 
which he attacked the Greeks of Magna Grsecia ; being- 
hard pressed by the Lucanians and other Italian tribes they 
could only offer a feeble resistance, and the western part 
of Magna Grrecia fell into his hands (b.c. 385). 

Dionysius waged two other wars against the Carthaginians, 
with varying fortune, but he was unable to drive them 
from the west of Sicily. He died b.c. 367, just after the 
second war, at the age of sixty -three. 

Dionysius was regarded as the greatest of the tyrants of 
antiquity. Philosophers and historians were fond of 
relating his cruelties, his precautions against assassination, 
and the unhappiness of his position amid all his greatness 
and success. He made Syracuse great at the expense of 
its freedom, and adorned it with splendid buildings, but 
the rest of Sicily he reduced to a state of poverty and 
wretchedness. His wars with Carthage were costly in 
money and human lives, and left her with hardly less 
territory than he found her. 

Cruel and unscrupulous as he was, he was fond of 
literature and philosophy, and attracted poets and philo- 
sophers to his court,, among whom was Plato, the pupil 
of Socrates. He himself was a poet of no small ability ; 
he composed several tragedies, to compete at Athens, and 
the year of his death won the first prize with the ' Ransom 
of Hector 5 ; he also sent poems to be recited at the 
Olympic Games, which are said to have been hissed, owing 
to their badness, but perhaps the cause was the indignation 
aroused by his attacks on the Italian Greeks. 

He was succeeded by his son, Dionysius the Younger, a 
young man reared in the court, unaccustomed to war, but, 
like his father, fond of philosophers and literature. His 
chief adviser was his friend and brother-in-law, Dion, a 
strong-willed and upright man, but haughty and over- 



350 HISTORY OF GREECE 

bearing. Aided by Plato, now at Syracuse, he attempted 
to direct the young ruler in the path of good government ; 
but Dionysius after a time grew tired of their lessons, sent 
Plato away, and banished Dion. 

Dion, after some years, landed with a small force (b.c. 
356) and, advancing against Syracuse, besieged the party of 
Dionysius in Ortygia, Dionysius himself flying to Locri in 
Italy, his mother's native town. Though hampered by the 
jealousy and intrigues of the leading Syracusans, by whom 
he was at one time deprived of his command, Dion at last 
took Ortygia. But when, instead of demolishing the 
fortifications of the tyrant's stronghold, he made himself 
tyrant in his place, the Syracusans rose against him and he 
was murdered (b.c. 353). His death brought no relief to 
the unhappy Syracusans : tyrant after tyrant started up, 
till at last Dionysius himself came back and ruled more 
oppressively than ever. Moreover, the Carthaginians were 
again threatening an invasion, and the Syracusans in despair 
applied for aid to their mother-city, Corinth. No leading 
man at Corinth would undertake the task of freeing Syra- 
cuse, so Timoleon was sent, a man fifty years old, of blame- 
less life, whose sole claim to distinction up to that time had 
been his hatred of tyrants, which had lately impelled him 
to kill his own brother for trying to make himself tyrant of 
Corinth. 

With under 1000 men Timoleon started on his ap- 
parently hopeless enterprise ; eluding the Carthaginian 
fleet, he landed in Sicily and advanced victoriously on 
Syracuse (b.c. 344). Dionysius, besieged in Ortygia by the 
Carthaginians, agreed to surrender if Timoleon would send 
him safely to Corinth. This he did, and Dionysius spent 
the rest of his life in Corinth, an object of great curiosity 
to citizens' and strangers, enjoying the conversation of 
philosophers, drowning his sorrows in the wine-cup, and, 
it is said, teaching reading and recitation. . Meanwhile, 



SICILY AND THE WEST 351 

Timoleon defeated the Carthaginians and gained possession 
of Syracuse. Then the real greatness of the man appeared. 
Instead of using his power to make himself tyrant like 
Dion, he destroyed the fortifications of Ortygia and restored 
the old constitution of the Syracusans. He then set him- 
self to the work of healing the troubles of the Sicilians, by 
putting down tyrants, recalling exiles, and inviting colonists 
from Greece, to the number, it is said, of 60,000, to repair 
the ravages of war and civil dissension in Syracuse, 
Agrigentum, and the other cities. When the Carthaginians 
declared war on him, he attacked them at the River 
Crimisus, in the west of the island, and, aided by a storm 
of hail and lightning, inflicted on them one of the most 
crushing defeats known in history (b.c. 339). Finally, 
after accomplishing his task, he laid down his office and 
lived for the few remaining years of his life as a private 
citizen in a house provided for him by the state ; he was 
regarded by the Syracusans with the deepest affection and 
respect, and even when his eyesight failed, the blind states- 
man used to be led into the assembly amid thunders of 
applause to give his opinion on the question in discussion. 
At his death (b.c. 337) crowds came from all quarters of 
Sicily to attend his funeral. The grateful Syracusans 
founded a festival in his honour, and raised as a memorial 
a pile of buildings known as the Timoleonteum. 

How long the peace and prosperity established by 
Timoleon lasted is unknown, for the history of the next 
few years has been lost. By about b.c. 320, when a 
generation had grown up ignorant of the horrors of civil 
discord and tyranny, the troubles had begun again at 
Syracuse, and ended in the establishment of a new tyranny 
by a soldier named Agathdcles, brave, able, and handsome, 
but utterly ruthless (b.c. 317). Being admitted into the 
city with a force of mercenaries, after swearing a solemn 
oath to observe the constitution, he let loose his soldiers on 



352 HISTORY OF GREECE 

the city and massacred some thousands of the citizens ; 
having thus firmly planted himself at Syracuse, he occupied 
the next few years in extending his power over the other 
Greek cities, by overthrowing their governments : thus 
everywhere, the good work of Timoleon was undone, and 
the Carthaginians were encouraged by the discord of the 
Greeks to renew their attacks. They defeated Agathocles 
at the Kiver Himera, (b.c. 310), whereupon the Greek cities, 
regarding them as liberators, came over to their side. 

Then Agathocles took the desperate step of invading 
Africa himself. Victorious at first, he did enormous harm to 
Carthage and gained immense booty, but his army was not 
strong enough to hold out against the repeated attacks of 
the Carthaginians, and was at last, after four years, com- 
pelled to surrender, he himself having previously returned 
to Syracuse. Agathocles made peace with Carthage by 
acknowledging her right to all her possessions in Sicily and 
then attacked and defeated the army of the Greek cities 
who had banded together against him and re-established 
his dominion in Sicily (b.c. 301). He kept up the same 
fierce energy to the last ; and when he died (b.c. 289) — 
poisoned, according to one account, by his grandson — he 
was planning a fresh expedition against his old foes the 
Carthaginians. 

Meanwhile the Greeks of South Italy, incapable of any 
sustained effort, and unable to produce any great leader, 
were gradually succumbing before the Lucanians and their 
' kinsmen the Samnites, till at last Tarentum, one of the 
few cities which still remained independent, implored the 
aid of her mother country, Sparta, just as Syracuse about 
the same time applied to Corinth. The Spartan king, 
Archidamus, the victor of the ' Tearless Battle,' came 
over with an army, but fell in battle the same year as 
Cha?ronea (b.c. 338). Then the Tarentines invited over 
Alexander of Epirus, brother-in-law of Philip of Macedon 



SICILY AND THE WEST 353 

(b.c. 332) : he came hoping to win a great empire in the 
West, such as his nephew, Alexander, was conquering in 
the East ; but, after winning many battles against the 
Lucanians, he fell by the dagger of a traitor (b.c. 326). 

But soon a new enemy appeared on the scene. The 
Eomans conquered the Samnites and Lucanians after long 
and bloody wars (b.c. 290), which gave the Tarentines a 
respite from their assaults. But in the year b.c. 282 the 
Tarentines, in a most reckless manner, provoked a war with 
Eome, and invited over Pyrrhus of Epirus (see p. 336), 
who came with the same hopes as his uncle Alexander. 
He won indeed two victories over the Eomans, but, meeting 
with a much more stubborn resistance than he expected, he 
was only too glad to receive a request for aid from the 
Syracusans. Syracuse, since the death of Agathocles, had 
been again hard pressed by the Carthaginians and was 
also suffering from the usual dissensions at home. Pyrrhus, 
with his wonted military skill, won victory after victory 
over the Carthaginians, but he was destined never to be 
successful in a war. He was repulsed in the siege of their 
great sea-port, Lilybseum ; and the Greeks, finding him in- 
clined to be their master rather than their ally, began to 
turn against him. In disgust he returned to Italy, was 
beaten by the Eomans, and, sailing back to Greece, left 
the Tarentines to submit to the rule of Eome (b.c. 272). 
Such was the fate of the cities of Magna Graecia : hence- 
forward they became mere provincial towns of Italy. 

After the departure of Pyrrhus, the Syracusans made one 
of their citizens, Hiero, a descendant of Gelo, general ; but he 
was soon acclaimed as king by the army (b.c. 270). But the 
struggle in Sicily was no longer between Carthaginians and 
Greeks, but between Carthaginians and Eomans. For the 
Eomans having made themselves masters of Italy by the 
defeat of Pyrrhus soon came into collision with the Cartha- 
ginians, and fought against them the famous ' Punic Wars/ 

Z 



354 HISTORY OF GREECE 

which belong to Roman rather than Greek history. Hiero 
at first took the Carthaginian side, bnt he was soon so 
convinced of the great strength of the Romans that he 
went over to them and remained faithful in his alliance to 
the day of his death fifty years afterwards ; thus seeming 
for Syracuse a longer period of peace and prosperity than 
she had enjoyed for many years. The first Punic war 
resulted in the Carthaginians being driven from the island 
in which they had been trying to establish themselves for 
so many hundreds of years, and the part of Sicily in their 
possession became a Roman Province. 

In B.C. 216, two years after the outbreak of the second 
Punic war (the war between Hannibal and Rome), Hiero 
died, and with him passed away the prosperity of Syracuse ; 
for his grandson and successor Hieronymus, a vain youth of 
fifteen, dazzled by the great victories of Hannibal, began 
to hanker after alliance with Carthage. Hieronymus was 
soon murdered, civil dissensions and bloodshed followed, in 
which the party favourable to Carthage were victorious, 
and Syracuse again changed sides. But Rome was not so 
weak as was supposed ; in the midst of her awful struggle 
with Hannibal in Italy she was able to spare an army 
to fight the Carthaginians in Sicily. Syracuse was besieged, 
and after a two years' resistance was taken by treachery 
and ruthlessly sacked, the efforts of the Carthaginians to 
relieve it being unavailing (b.c. 210). The whole of Sicily 
now fell into the power of the Romans, and was formally 
surrendered to them by the Carthaginians, when, after the 
defeat of Hannibal at Zama, they were compelled to sue 
for peace (b.c. 201). 

Sicily was made into a Province (the first of the Roman 
Provinces), and ruled by a governor sent from Rome. 
Unfortunately, in their treatment of it, the Romans followed 
the example set by the Carthaginians, who regarded a 
Province as a place from which to get money ; the Sicilians 



SICILY AND THE WEST 355 

were, therefore, ground down by taxation and the tyranny 
and exactions of the Eoman Governors, the worst of whom, 
Verres, was successfully prosecuted by the great Eoman 
orator Cicero, in a speech which gives a terrible picture of 
the sufferings of the unfortunate provincials. The cities 
dwindled, the land was divided into huge estates cultivated 
by gangs of slaves for their Eoman masters, who more 
than once broke into revolt, and the island was devas- 
tated by horrible slave- wars. The establishment of the 
Eoman Empire by Augustus brought better government, 
but the Greek life of Sicily had passed away, it had 
become a mere appendage of Italy, and its further history 
concerns us no longer. 



CHAPTER XLIV 

THE LITERATURE OF THE GREEKS 

The earliest literature in Greece was poetry ; for in a ruder 
age, when there was little or no writing, poetry was a more 
natural form of composition than prose, as being easier to 
remember. It was not until the historical times that a 
real prose literature arose. The earliest known poetry was 
epic, and its home was not in Greece but the Asiatic 
colonies. It has been already mentioned (see p. 26) that 
epic poems were songs of fighting and adventure sung by 
wandering ministrels in the halls of kings and nobles ; and 
the most famous epics, the Iliad and Odyssey, have been 
described and the question of their authorship discussed. 
Their date was probably about 800 B.C. There were many 
other epics, mostly of a later date, which, being of inferior 
merit, have not survived ; their authors were known as the 
Cyclic Poets, because their poems all together covered the 
whole cycle of the Trojan Legend : however, the Trojan 
Legend was not the only one treated. One other epic has 
survived, written in much later times in imitation of the 
old epic ; this is the Argonautica, the adventures of Jason 
and the Argonauts (see p. 32), written by Apollonius 
Ehodius the Alexandrian (b.c. 222-181). 

Akin to the epic are the ' Hymns J to Apollo and other 
gods, which were once attributed to Homer ; and there is 
also a mock epic called the Battle of the Frogs and Mice, the 
date of which is probably rather late. 

356 



THE LITERATURE OF THE GREEKS 357 

After epic arose two new styles of poetry, didactic and 
lyric. Didactic poetry (bihavKeiv, to teach) means ' Instruc- 
tive Poetry. J There was only one great didactic poet, 
Hesiod (about B.C. 700 probably). What little is known of 
Hesiod is gathered chiefly from his works ; he was born at 
Ascra in Bceotia, and was unjustly deprived of part of his 
inheritance by his brother. To this brother he addresses 
his chief work, the Works and Days, which consists partly of 
moral precepts and partly of directions for farming and 
managing a household. Other poems attributed to him 
are the Theogony (an account of Greek mythology) and the 
Shield of Heracles, an imitation of the Shield of Achilles 
in Homer. He was followed by several didactic poets 
whose works were imitated by Virgil in his Georgics. 

Lyric poetry — i.e. songs written to be sung to the lyre — was 
of many different kinds : love songs, war songs, political odes, 
choric songs in honour of gods, or to commemorate national 
events. Lyric poetry sprang up and flourished mostly in 
the islands of the iEgean, and lasted from about 700-500 
B.C. — that is, during the age of the tyrants, who, as has been 
mentioned, greatly encouraged literature. Many fragments, 
and a few more or less complete poems, of the early lyric 
poets have come down to us. 

Archildchus, about 700 B.C., is the earliest lyric poet. He 
was a native of the island of Paros ; he invented the Iambic 
metre in which he wrote bitter satires against his personal 
enemies ; he wrote other kinds of poetry, and is said to have 
also invented the Elegiac metre which became such a 
favourite with the Eoman poets. 

Alcaeus and the poetess Sappho (both about B.C. 600) 
were natives of Lesbos ; they are famous for their passionate 
love songs, and have given their names to the Alcaic and 
Sapphic metres adapted with such effect by the Roman 
Horace. Alcaeus was a noble, and was driven into exile by 
political dissensions ; many of his poems were to encourage 



35S HISTORY OF GREECE 

the nobles in their struggle. Sappho, according to one 
story, threw herself into the sea owing to her love not being 
returned. 

Simonides (b.c. 556-467) was a native of the island of 
Ceos. but spent most of his life at Athens now rising into 
a leading city ; he wrote poetry of many kinds, and is said 
to have been the first poet to take money for his composi- 
tions ; he competed at the many poetical competitions held 
at Athens, and won no less than fifty-six prizes, defeating the 
tragic poet Aeschylus for an elegy on^the Athenians slain 
at Marathon. He was afterwards invited by Hiero, King 
of Syracuse, to his court, where he died. His contemporary 
Anacreon (about B.C. 550 to 478) was born at Teos, an 
Ionian city of Asia Minor ; he lived first at Sanios at the 
court of the tyrant Polycrates, and then at Athens, whither 
he was invited by the tyrant Hippias. His poems were 
mostly love or drinking songs, wonderfully polished and 
graceful, but, as might be expected in a court poet, they 
lack the natural foe and spirit of Alcaeus and Sappho. 

Stesichonis of Himera in Sicily (b.c. 632-560) was the 
first great poet of choric odes, in which he introduced great 
improvements. He is said to have been struck blind by 
Helen, who was supposed to have been deified, for defaming 
her name in a poem on the Trojan war : whereupon he 
wrote a recantation atfirming that it was not Helen but a 
phantom of her that went to Troy. 

Another writer of choric odes was Arion, a native of 
Lesbos (about 600 b.c.) ; he lived at the court of Periander, 
tyrant of Corinth, and on one occasion (according to the 
story) when returning thither from a voyage to Sicily, 
thruwn over by the sailors, who coveted his wealth ; but a 
dolphin took him and carried him safely to land. Arion 
the first poet to compose the Dithyramb, the origin of which 
name is unknown. Dithyrambs were songs sung with 
dancing at festivals in honour of Dionysus by chore 



THE LITERATURE OF THE GREEKS 359 

dressed as Satyrs, the attendants of Dionysus, half men and 
half goats. They had their origin among the Dorians, 
especially at the Isthmus at Corinth and Megara. 

The long line of lyric poets closes with Pindar (b.c. 522- 
442) a native of Boeotia, its one great poet. He wrote 
poems of many kinds, but is chiefly famous for his four 
books of Epinicia, or victory songs, choric songs in honour 
of the victors in the four great games ; these alone have 
come down to us entire ; they are very difficult Greek, and 
full of obscure allusions to legendary history. On the 
destruction of Thebes by Alexander the Great the house 
of Pindar was spared, perhaps because he had written an 
ode on a victory of Alexander, who was king of Macedon 
at the time of the Persian wars. 

After the Lyric age came the age of Dramatic Poetry. 
This was confined to Athens, and consisted of Tragedy and 
Comedy. Tragedy arose from the Dithyrambs (mentioned 
above in the account of Arion). These Dithyrambic 
Choruses gradually became more and more dramatic ; 
scenes from the adventures of Dionysus, afterwards also of 
some other god or hero, being half-acted, half-recited. 
These performances were called Tragedies, or goat-songs 
(Tpaya)Stci, from rpdyos goat, and a>dr] song), either because a 
goat was sacrificed to Dionysus, or because the Chorus 
were dressed as Satyrs. Thus the word Tragedy had not 
originally its modern meaning of a play with a sad 
ending. 

Dithyrambic Choruses were introduced from the Isthmus 
into Attica, where Dionysus was also worshipped ; and 
competitions were held at his festivals. They were further 
developed by Thespis (about 530 B.C.), who added a reciter 
in the intervals of the Chorus, and is therefore known as 
the Father of Tragedy ; and by Phrynichus (about 500 B.C.), 
who made the reciter an actor, and so first composed 
regular plays in which, of course, the Chorus played an 



360 HISTORY OF GREECE 

important part. His most famous tragedy was the 
Capture of Miletus, which moved the audience to tears, 
but for which he was heavily fined. 

After Phrynichus came the three great Tragic Poets of 
immortal fame — Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, whose 
united careers just covered the period of the rise and fall of 
the Athenian Empire. Aeschylus (b.c. 525 to 456), greatly 
developed Tragedy by introducing a second actor, and 
in his later plays adopted the third actor introduced 
by Sophocles : thus in his plays we see the action 
and dialogue growing more important, and the Chorus 
gradually falling into the background, till a Tragedy 
became what we should really consider a play. He 
fought in the three great battles of the Persian wars ; 
losing a brother at Marathon, where he himself was 
wounded. After the battle of Salamis he produced a play 
describing the defeat and death of Xerxes, called The 
Persians, thus following the example of Phrynichus : this 
is the only Tragedy that has come down to us referring to 
contemporary events. He exhibited his first play in b.c. 
499, but did not win a prize till b.c. 484 ; and in b.c. 468 
being defeated by Sophocles, he left Athens in disgust for 
the court of Hiero at Syracuse ; he afterwards returned 
to Athens and won another prize in b.c. 458, but died two 
years later in Sicily. The style of Aeschylus is majestic 
and solemn, though somewhat rugged ; his plots simple. 
His favourite theme is the remorseless power of Destiny 
overruling gods and men, and bringing certain punishment 
on pride and sin. In politics he belonged to the party of the 
nobles, and one of his last plays is thought to be a defence 
of the Areopagus soon after its overthrow by Pericles. 

Sophocles (b.c. 495-406), his younger rival, was a poet of 
a different kind ; he portrays human character and suffer- 
ing, and, though wanting in the vigour of Aeschylus, he 
surpasses him in tender grace and beauty. He completed 



THE LITERATURE OF THE GREEKS 361 

the development begun by Aeschylus by introducing the 
third actor as mentioned above. Three was henceforth the 
established number of actors, the less important characters 
being divided among the two inferior actors : occasionally 
however it seems that a fourth actor must have spoken a 
few words. 

The earliest fact known about his life is that he was 
chosen to lead the chorus of boys who performed the 
triumphal dance in honour of the victory of Salamis. He 
was only twenty-eight when he won his first victory over 
Aeschylus. In B.C. 440 he was sent as general with 
Pericles to the siege of Samos owing, it is said, to the 
success of his tragedy Antigone. Not long before his 
death, when he was nearly ninety years old, his son Iophon, 
who was afraid of being deprived of his inheritance, brought 
him to trial as being mentally incapable ; but his recitation 
of a chorus from his last play, not yet performed, so im- 
pressed the judges that they dismissed the case with a 
rebuke to the unnatural son. 

Euripides (b.c. 480 to 407) was born, according to the 
story, on the very day of the battle of Salamis : his 
character as a poet and dramatist has always been the subject 
of dispute. His plays show great pathos, ingenious plots, 
and skilful study of character ; but he lacks the grandeur 
of Aeschylus and the moral earnestness of Sophocles ; he at 
times degrades his heroes into ordinary persons ; he has a 
fondness for philosophical discussions, and sometimes his 
plots are so complicated that he has to bring in a god at 
the end to set matters straight. But with all his faults he 
is the most human and pathetic of the tragedians. He 
exhibited his first play in his own name in b.c. 455, and 
gained his first prize in B.C. 441 ; he was a student of philo- 
sophy and a friend of Socrates, but his life at Athens was 
not altogether happy, and in b.c. 408 he left the city and 
repaired to Macedonia, to the court of the king Archelaus. 



362 HISTORY OF GREECE 

There he died the next year, torn to pieces, according to the 
story, by dogs set on him by some spiteful rivals. 

There were other tragic poets, both contemporary with 
and subsequent to the great three, some of whose names 
have come down to us, but .their works have not sur- 
vived. As Tragedy rose from the Dithyrambic Choruses 
at the festivals of Dionysus, so from the coarse jesting 
which also formed a part of these festivals came another 
form of drama — a rough farce called Comedy (Kco/xwSta) 
either the Eevel Song (from Ka>/w) or the Village Song 
(from Kob/x?7), because this form of entertainment was 
celebrated in the villages rather than in the towns. 
Introduced into Attica from the Dorians of the Isthmus, 
like Tragedy, Comedy was also like Tragedy performed in 
competitions at the Dionysiac festivals. 

Comedy grew with the growth of Athenian democracy ; 
for the first recorded comic victory was won by Cratinus, 
in B.C. 452, a few years after Pericles had risen to the head 
of affairs. After Cratinus came Aristophanes, the only 
comic poet whose plays have come down to us (b.c. 444- 
380). They show us that the Comedy of that day, known 
as the Old Comedy, was one of the most astounding 
products of the Greek mind, and could hardly have been 
possible in any other state or period. For the Athenians, 
so full of life and self-confidence, allowed their comic poets 
absolute freedom to attack all their institutions, political, 
social, and even religious, and to assail both public and 
private citizens openly by name, and placed little restraint 
on them as regards decency. The result is a series of plays 
written in the purest Attic, with keen wit and playful 
humour alternating with coarseness and savage caricature, 
and varied with choruses occasionally of wonderful poetic 
beauty. Of Aristophanes 5 private life nothing is known, 
but from his plays we see that he was opposed to the 
democracy and war with Sparta. Among historical person- 



THE LITERATURE OF THE GREEKS 363 

ages Cleon, Nicias, Demosthenes (the general), Lamachus, 
Socrates, Euripides, and Aeschylus are actually brought on 
the stage. One play (the Knights) was specially devoted 
to an attack on Cleon ; another (the Clouds) was against 
Socrates, whose character the poet wholly misunderstood ; 
in a third (the Frogs) he attacks Euripides only two years 
after his death, representing him as being worsted in a 
poetic contest with Aeschylus in the world below. 

But after the end of the Peloponnesian war, when the 
Athenians were exhausted and their fiery energy gone, this 
licence began to be restricted, and a modified form of 
Comedy grew up called the Middle Comedy, of which one 
play of Aristophanes (the Plutus, or God of Wealth, produced 
b.c. 388) is the only example ; the Middle Comedy in its 
turn gave way to the New Comedy, the simple Comedy of 
domestic life without any chorus, which lasted for many 
centuries, and of which Menander (b.c. 342 to 291) is the 
greatest name. No plays of the New Comedy have survived 
except in the Latin adaptations of Plautus and Terence. 

The splendid outburst of the Tragic and Comic Muse in 
the days of Athenian greatness was the culminating point 
of Greek poetic genius. From that time onward no new 
style of poetry arose, with one exception. Theocritus, a 
native of Syracuse (about b.c. 280), wrote rustic poems 
called Bucolics (BovkoXos, a herdsman), in imitation of the 
rough songs common among the Dorian peasants of Sicily. 
The poems written in the Dorian dialect are of a wonderful 
charm and beauty, and are additionally interesting as being 
imitated by Virgil in his Eclogues. 

While poetry goes back to almost the earliest times of 
Greece, prose as a literary composition only dates from the 
sixth century b.c. It was the philosophers first who found 
it more convenient than poetry for describing their specu- 
lations. Then historians began to appear, at first little 
more than compilers of genealogies. The first real historian 



364 HISTORY OF GREECE 

was Hecataeus of Miletus (about 500 B.C.), for, as was the 
case with poetry, the first beginnings of prose came not 
from the mother-country, but from the more rapidly 
developed Asiatic colonies. So great was Hecataeus's 
reputation that, at the time of the Ionic revolt, his country- 
men turned to him for advice. His answer was that they 
should not rebel at all ; but if they did they should unite 
closely, and make a common capital. His advice was dis- 
regarded, and the revolt as we know failed. 

The works of Hecataeus have not survived, and the title 
of Father of History has fallen to his successor Herodotus, 
a native of Halicarnassus, born about B.C. 484. Herodotus 
travelled extensively, and then apparently settled at 
Athens, where he made the acquaintance of Sophocles and 
other leading Athenian writers ; he then went to Thurii 
which had recently been refounded by the Athenians (see 
page 154). There he probably wrote his history ; he died 
in the early years of the Peloponnesian war, but whether at 
Thurii, Athens, or elsewhere is uncertain. His history 
composed in nine books, which his admirers named after 
the nine Muses, and written in Ionic Greek, is a chronicle 
of the Persian wars from the Ionic revolt to the capture of 
Sestus by the Athenians, B.C. 479 (see page 122); through it 
runs the idea of a jealous Providence which punishes human 
pride. But the chief charm of Herodotus consists in the 
digressions with which from time to time he interrupts his 
narrative to describe the habits and land of some nation, or 
to trace its previous history before us in his simple fashion ; 
the varied information he has gathered on his travels — a 
medley of history, myth, quaint stories and strange marvels, 
about which even he himself has sometimes to express a doubt. 

Very different is the Athenian Thucydides, the greatest 
of all historians. His work, beginning w r ith a sketch of 
early Greek history in which he attempts to separate fact 
from legends, is a detailed account of the Peloponnesian 



THE LITERATURE OF THE GREEKS 365 

war, written with the strictest impartiality, and full of 
profound observations on the politics of the day. Thucy- 
dides was born B.C. 471 : of his private life little is known. 
He was a man of wealth, for he possessed gold mines on the 
island of Thasos and the Thracian coast. He appears once 
on the stage of his own history, being one of the generals 
on the Thracian coast in B.C. 424, when Brasidas invaded 
Chalcidice ; on which occasion, as has been described, by 
his remissness he allowed Brasidas to take Amphipolis, 
and was in consequence banished for twenty years. During 
his exile he travelled widely and collected information for 
his history, which he did not live to finish : the eighth 
book, which shows signs of not being revised, ending 
abruptly in the year B.C. 411. 

Thucydides's unfinished work was continued by his 
fellow-countryman Xenophon in a work entitled Hellenica, 
which carries on the history to the battle of Mantinea, B.C. 
362. Little is known of Xenophon before he joined the 
Ten Thousand ; one story states that his life was saved by 
Socrates at the battle of Delium, but he describes himself 
as a young man at the time of the expedition of the Ten 
Thousand, which would place his birth not much before 
430 B.C. His indignation against his fellow-countrymen for 
the execution of his master Socrates has been mentioned in 
the course of the history ; he rejoined the Ten Thousand 
and fought in their ranks under Agesilaus at Coronea, b.c. 
394. Being banished from Athens (whether before or after 
the battle of Coronea, is not certain), he settled in a peace- 
ful country retreat on Spartan territory, where he com- 
posed numerous works. According to one account he was 
recalled by his fellow-countrymen, and died at Athens. 

He was a simple pious man, but his aristocratic leanings 
and the execution of Socrates made him prefer the Spartans 
to the Athenians. "His style is easy, but poor and un- 
interesting compared with that of Thucydides ; while he is 



366 HISTORY OF GREECE 

far inferior to kirn in fairness, showing the greatest partiality 
to the Spartans and depreciating their enemies, especially 
Eparninondas, 

Besides the Hellenica he wrote an account of the march 
and retreat of the Ten Thousand, called the Anabasis, several 
works about his master Socrates, a panegyric on his great 
hero Agesilaus, the Ua. or Education of Cyrus the 

Great an entirely imaginary sketch giving his ideas on 
education), and several treatises on politics and sport. 
There were other historians after Xenophon whose works 
have not come down to us ; and others who wrote after 
the loss of Greek independence, but their works, though 
important for their matter, are of little value as specimens 
of Greek lit era t tire. 

Another pupil of Socrates was Plato, who developed his 
masters teaching into his own splendid system of philo- 
sophy. This he expounded in a series of Dialogues, in 
which Socrates is introduced, written in the purest and 
most beautiful Attic Greek that we possess. Plato was born 
about B.C. 42 S. After the death of Socrates he went to 
Megara and afterwards travelled widely ; in Sicily he made 
the acquaintance of the tyrant Dionysius ; but they 
quarrelled, and, according to one story, Dionysius handed 
him over to the Spartan ambassador, who sold him as a 
slave. He afterwards returned to Athens, and lectured in 
the Gymnasium in a grove outside Athens called Academia, 
after a mythical hero Academus. Hence his school was 
called the Academy. His greatest pupil was the famous 
philosopher Aristotle, who also founded a system of 
his own, which has had a profound influence on the 
history of philosophy both ancient and modern : he 
however made no attempt to imitate his master's beauty 
of style. 

One more form of literature requires mention, namely 
Oratory. About the beginning of the Peloponnesian war 



THE LITERATURE OF THE GREEKS 367 

the Sicilian philosopher Gorgias came to Athens and 
created a great sensation by his brilliant oratory ; he then 
gave lessons for money in the art of speaking, and thus 
gave rise to a class of professional orators who made a 
livelihood as teachers of oratory, or as advocates not speak- 
ing themselves but composing speeches to be delivered by 
litigants in the law courts. Sometimes they also mixed 
in politics. The orators brought Attic prose to its highest 
development of grace and clearness. 

The first great orator was Antiphon, an aristocrat who 
took a leading part in the conspiracy of the Four Hundred, 
and suffered death in spite of his brilliant defence of him- 
self. Lysias was the son of a wealthy metic ; he lost his 
property during the rule of the Thirty Tyrants, during 
which also his brother was killed ; but after the restoration 
of the democracy he prosecuted the murderers with such 
success that he adopted advocacy as a profession. Isocrates 
(b.c. 436 to 338) was a most successful teacher and 
composer of speeches : though not really a practical 
politician he composed treatises in the form of speeches, but 
never really delivered, in which he urged his favourite 
project, the union of Athens and Sparta for a grand invasion 
of Persia. 

Isaeus, his contemporary, is chiefly noticeable as having 
been the instructor of the greatest of Athenian orators 
Demosthenes ; nothing is known of his private life, and there 
is little of interest in his speeches. His pupil Demosthenes 
(b.c. 385, about, to 322) was the son of a wealthy 
manufacturer, who died when the future orator was seven 
years old ; his guardians took advantage of his youth to 
cheat him out of his property ; but when he grew up, with 
the aid of Isaeus he prosecuted them successfully (b.c. 364), 
and obtained such a reputation that he started as a speech- 
writer, and continued that profession for some years. 
Finally he came forward as a public speaker in the 



368 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Assembly. He had many disadvantages — a weak voice, a 
mean presence, and a stammer ; but he laboured inces- 
santly to train himself, declaiming on the sea-shore, it is 
said, to accustom himself to the noise of the Assembly, and 
speaking with a pebble in his mouth to overcome his 
stammer. Though unsuccessful at first, he persevered, and, 
in time, became one of the leading politicians of Athens. 
His public career and speeches, his patriotic but hopeless 
struggle against the rising might of Mace don, and his sad 
end, have been sufficiently described in the course of the 
history, and need not be repeated here. 

His rival Aeschines (b.c. 389 to 314) was not, strictly 
speaking, a professional orator. Originally an actor (of 
inferior parts) he afterwards became a clerk in the public 
service ; his fine presence and good voice led him to 
come forward as a speaker in the Assembly, where he met 
with great success, but he lacked the fire and sincerity of 
Demosthenes. 

With Demosthenes and the orators of his generation 
passed away the last great literary period of free Athens. 
Henceforward, instead of producing original work, the 
Greek mind turned itself to the study and imitation of the 
great masterpieces of former days. At Alexandria, the 
capital of the Greek kingdom of the Ptolemies, there arose 
a school of famous critics and grammarians, the greatest of 
whom was Aristarchus (b.c. 150) to whom we chiefly owe 
the existing arrangement of the Homeric poems. Two 
poets of these later times, Theocritus and Apollonius 
Ehodius, have been mentioned. 

Of prose- writers mention is due to Polybius, Arrian, Dio 
Cassius, historians ; Plutarch, the great biographer ; 
Strabo, the geographer ; and Pausanias, the traveller ; while 
Lucian, in a number of humorous works, including several 
with satires on the old gods, made an attempt, with con- 
siderable success, to revive the true Attic style. 



CHAPTER XLV 

THE PRIVATE LIFE AT ATHENS 

We know little of the private life in any Greek State 
except Athens and Sparta. The customs of Sparta were 
peculiar to itself, being founded on the institutions of 
Lycurgus, which have been already described at the 
beginning of this history, and need no further mention. It 
is at Athens that we see the typical Greek life, though 
carried to a higher degree of refinement and civilisation 
than in the other states ; and, fortunately, the comic poets 
and orators give us many glimpses of the private life of 
the Athenians. 

In picturing Athenian society to ourselves, we must not 
forget the important fact that each city was a little state 
in itself. Every one, therefore, of the twenty thousand 
citizens of Athens was far more closely bound up with the 
public life of his State than the ordinary Englishman. In 
the first place, he was a soldier, and liable at any time to 
be called out to serve either on some distant expedition, or 
for the defence of his city walls. Then he was as a citizen 
a member of the Ecclesia, where he could hear the great 
political orators speak, and might any day have to give his 
vote on some important point of State policy, perhaps even 
a question of peace or war ; or he might be on the Boule, 
and a member of a Prytany (see p. 140), and have to sit 
every day to transact public business. Frequently, too, he 
would be one of the jurymen in the Heliaea, deciding some 

2a 



370 HISTORY OF GREECE 

knotty point of law. Then there were the great religious 
festivals from time to time — the Dionysia, in which he would 
be with all his fellow- citizens in the great open-air theatre 
under the Acropolis, listening to the competing tragedies 
or comedies ; or the Panathenaea, in which, if a rich 
man, he would be riding with his fellow knights in the 
splendid procession. Thus continually it would be brought 
home to him that he was an Athenian citizen, an active 
member of what he considered the grandest state in 
Greece. 

Even the ordinary daily life of the Athenian was spent a 
great deal in public. One great resort was the market- 
place (Agdra) — a large, irregular space, part of which was 
occupied by the various special markets for fish, meat, 
slaves, etc., while part formed an open space, originally the 
meeting-place of the city \t round which had grown up 
temples, colonnades, baths, shops, and other buildings. 
In more modern towns the whole Agora was a regular 
building surrounded by a colonnade. , Hither the citizen 
came in the morning to make his purchases for the day, 
for it was not considered seemly for a woman to market : 
here also the business men congregated, and the bankers 
with their tables : here, too, came the man of leisure to 
meet his friends, discuss the latest news, or to wile away his 
time in the baths or the shops. 

Another place of public resort was the Gymnasium. 
Gymnastics formed a most important feature of Greek life, 
being regarded in all the states as most important for 
the proper development of the body : they were, however, 
a more outdoor form of exercise than our modern 
gymnastics, consisting chiefly of running, wrestling, boxing, 
spear and quoit throwing, and the like, and various games 
generally with the ball. The Gymnasium consisted of a 
large open space or training-ground, surrounded by a 
colonnade and rooms : some of these rooms were for 



THE PRIVA TE LIFE AT A THENS 37 1 

gymnastic purposes, others were for philosophers and 
rhetoricians who gave their lectures there : baths were 
also attached to the Gymnasium, and sometimes a practis- 
ing-ground for athletes preparing for the Games, with walks 
planted with trees. There were three large gymnasia at 
Athens, one of which, the Academy, has been already 
mentioned as the place where Plato taught : there were 
also many other smaller institutions. In these gymnasia 
the Athenian spent much of his leisure time, either exer- 
cising himself, or watching the exercise of others, and 
chatting with his friends, or attending the lectures of the 
philosophers and rhetoricians. Plato in one of his dialogues 
represents Socrates, on his return from serving at the 
siege of Potidaea, as coming immediately to the Gymnasium 
to find his friends and to hear the latest news. 

Besides the Gymnasium, other relaxations for those 
inclined more to pleasure than serious business were 
chariot- driving, hunting, and especially cock-fighting," 
which was a favourite sport at Athens, quails as well as 
game-cocks being used. Gambling was indulged in, chiefly 
with dice ; and there were several harmless games, some 
like our draughts. Banquets at which men only were 
present were a common form of entertainment ; the Greeks 
reclined at their meals on the left arm, usually two at each 
table ; no wine was drunk during the meal, but when it 
was over, the drinking-party or symposium began. Fresh 
guests now came in, sometimes uninvited. A 'king' of the 
revels or ' symposiarch ' was chosen by the throw of the dice, 
and he decided how much wine should be drunk, and in 
what proportion the wine and water should be mixed ; for 
the wine was strong and heavy, and always drunk mixed 
with water. Chaplets were handed round to each guest, 
and after libations to the gods the drinking began. For 
amusement they had singing, especially drinking-songs and 
catches, and also games ; often dancing women, jugglers, 



372 HISTORY OF GREECE 

and flute -players were brought in to enliven the proceed- 
ings, which continued to a late hour, and, it must be con- 
fessed, sometimes ended in riot and drunkenness. 

A great contrast to the life of the Athenian citizen, and 
also a chief point of difference between Greek life and ours, 
was the inferior position of the women at Athens, a position 
very different to the state of things in the Homeric age and 
also at Sparta. The greatest merit of an Athenian woman, 
according to the words put by Thucydides into Pericles's 
mouth, was that she should be publicly known neither for 
good nor evil, t As a girl she was brought up absolutely in 
seclusion at home, and was in no wise allowed to mix with 
the other sex, only going out in public under strict super- 
vision. Even when married she had but little more freedom : 
the Athenian husband never made a real companion of his 
wife, which is not surprising, considering her bringing up : 
she might never go to the Agora or Gymnasium, or accom- 
pany her husband to an entertainment at a friend's house, 
or entertain her husband's guests at home. Her duties 
were simply to bring up her children and to manage her 
husband's household. At Sparta, on the other hand, as at 
Rome, the wife was regarded with honour and respect as 
the mother of future citizens of the State. 

Another great difference between Greek and modern life 
is the institution of slavery : the large number of slaves 
at Athens has been mentioned (see p. 141). Slaves at 
Athens practically took the place of our lower orders ; they 
were domestic servants, and worked on the farms, in mines 
and manufactories, and all public menial occupations ; even 
the police at Athens were slaves, mostly from Scythia, as 
were many of the inferior clerks in the public offices. Most 
of the trade in the shops, too, was carried on by slaves 
for Athenian masters or by foreigners (metics, see p. 141), 
for it was considered degrading for a citizen to keep a 
shop. The poorer citizens seem to have been for the most 



THE PRIVATE LIFE AT ATHENS 373 

part small cultivators ; but both they and the metics some- 
times performed slave duties for hire. These slaves were 
generally Asiatics ; occasionally Greek prisoners of war 
were sold into slavery, as in case of Olynthus (see p. 
293), but it was generally regarded as degrading for a 
Greek to become a slave, and it became a practice for rich 
Greeks to ransom poorer fellow-citizens when necessary. 
As a rule the slaves were fairly well treated ; the Greeks 
were more humane than the Eomans, and the State did not 
give them the right of putting their slaves to death as it 
did at Home : there is little doubt that the position of 
domestic slaves was, except as regards freedom, as com- 
fortable generally as that of our domestics ; many of them 
became trusted family servants. They had, however, no 
rights except through their master, and no slave could give 
evidence in the court of law except under torture of the 
rack — a strange and cruel law. They were sold openly in 
the Agora, the price being from one to ten mina3 (£3 to 
£30, about). The number of slaves kept was a sign of a 
man's wealth and position ; and it was usual to have two 
or three slaves, or more, in attendance when going out. 
I On the birth of an Athenian child it was in the power of 
the father to decide whether it should be brought up or 
exposed on the mountains to die. If the child was exposed, 
which we may believe was not often the case, it was usual 
to place with it some trinket or other article by which it 
might be afterwards recognised if rescued and brought up by 
some stranger, a custom which often formed the plot of 
Greek comedies. On the tenth day the child was named, 
and there was a banquet and sacrifice, to which friends and 
relations were invited. The nursery life of an Athenian 
child was naturally much the same as our own : it had its 
toys to play with ; stories of gods and heroes took the place 
of our fairy tales. At about the age of six the child, if a 
boy, was taken from the nursery and put under the charge 



374 HISTORY OF GREECE 

of a slave, generally an elderly man, called paedagogus 
(child leader, from irais ayco), whence comes our pedagogue ; 
the duty of the Athenian paedagogus, however, was not to 
teach, but to look after his charge, train him in proper be- 
haviour, and, when he went to school, take him thither 
and fetch him away. 

The education prescribed by the State for an Athenian 
boy consisted of letters (i.e. reading, writing, and arith- 
metic), gymnastics, and music. The Greeks attached so 
much importance to bodily training, as already mentioned, 
that, not content with encouraging it in playtime, as we 
do, they made it an actual part of the education itself. 

Every parent was compelled to send his son to a school, 
but the schools themselves were private institutions. The 
schoolmaster had nothing to do with the boy except to 
teach him, and the profession did not rank very high at 
Athens. When he was able to read, the boy was in- 
structed in the works of the national poets, long passages 
of which were learned by heart ; the knowledge of Homer 
especially was considered necessary for an Athenian gentle- 
man. The arithmetic was very simple, most of it being 
done with the fingers, or by counters on a counting-board. 
Half the day was probably spent at school, the other half 
at the Gymnasium : the boys seem to have attended the 
ordinary gymnasia, which, however, were closed to the 
public while they were being instructed. They were, of 
course, attended by their paedagogus, and there were 
public officials, whose business it was to look after them. 
Their musical education began later, apparently about the 
age of thirteen : music was closely connected with the 
national poetry and the national religion, and was regarded 
as an accomplishment in the highest degree befitting a 
gentleman. The instrument usually learned was the lyre. 

At the age of sixteen the boy became an Ephebus or 
youth. He now escaped from the supervision of the 



THE PRIVATE LIFE AT ATHENS 375 

psedagogus ; his hair was cut short, in honour of which a 
festival was celebrated ; his schooling ceased, but for two 
years more his gymnastic training was continued as a 
preparation for military service. At the age of eighteen 
the Ephebus was entered on the list of his tribe, presented 
publicly to his fellow- citizens in the theatre, and took an 
oath of allegiance to his country ; he was now enrolled in 
the home-defence army. At the age of twenty he became 
a full citizen, was enrolled in the ordinary army, and 
entitled to attend the Ecclesia. 

He could, however, if so inclined, continue his education 
by studying philosophy and oratory under the philosophers 
and rhetoricians, who taught in the Gymnasium, and 
charged generally high fees ; but doubtless the majority 
preferred gymnastics and other more congenial pursuits. 

The dress of the Greeks, as was natural in so warm a 
climate, consisted of few articles of a loose and simple 
nature, which their natural sense of beauty made very 
graceful. 

The ordinary indoor costume for both men and women 
was the Chiton, a simple shirt-like garment, either fastened 
over the shoulders or having holes to put the arms through. 
It was fastened round the waist with a girdle. There were 
two kinds of Chiton — the Ionian, which was of linen reach- 
ing down to the feet, and with short sleeves ; and the 
Dorian, of wool, reaching only to the knee, and fastened 
over the shoulders. At Athens the men gave up the 
Ionian Chiton for the more convenient Dorian one ; but 
the women continued to wear the Ionian : the women's 
Chiton was drawn up through the girdle so as to hang 
over it in folds, and sometimes so arranged that the upper 
part was double and hung down as far as the girdle, thus 
forming a very graceful garment. Slaves and workmen 
were distinguished by a Chiton fastened over the left 
shoulder, but leaving the right arm and shoulder quite bare. 



376 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Over the Chiton, out of doors, both men and women 
wore a large square garment called Himation, which was 
thrown round the body in a similar fashion to the Roman 
toga ; the Himation was also used as a blanket for sleep- 
ing. There was also a shorter mantle called Chlamys, which 
was fastened round the neck by a clasp, and hung down to 
the knees. This was the distinctive dress of the Ephebi, 
and was also used as a military cloak. Both white and 
coloured costumes were worn ; the colours of the men 
were generally dark, those of the women brighter ; but it 
was not respectable for a woman to wear too bright colours. 

Hats, low and broad-brimmed, were worn by travellers, 
but not usually by persons walking about in the city. In 
the same way sandals and shoes of various descriptions 
were worn when necessary to protect the feet, especially in 
winter, but not in the summer or always out of doors. It 
is stated as an instance of Socrates's hardihood that he 
went barefooted at the siege of Potidsea even in the 
winter. 

Though the dress of the Greeks seems so simple, yet they 
were just as much given to the various arts of self-adornment 
as modern nations, especially the women. The men after 
they had passed the age of the Ephebi wore the hair 
slightly long ; they also wore the beard and moustache 
till the day of Alexander the Great, who brought shaving 
into fashion by ordering his soldiers to shave. The women 
wore their hair arranged in graceful coils on the head. 

The poorest feature of Greek life was the private house ; 
it is somewhat surprising to find that Athens was not, as a 
whole, a fine city. But so it was. It has been mentioned 
that the Athenian citizen lived much of his time in public, 
and always felt himself closely bound up with the public 
life of his state. The result was that all the splendid archi- 
tecture of Athens was in the public buildings, especially 
the Acropolis, with its glorious temples, and the Agora. 



THE PR IV A TE LIFE AT A THENS 377 

The private houses were of a mean appearance, roughly- 
built, and with few windows looking out on the street. 
The streets themselves- were narrow and crooked, a result 
probably of the haste with which the city was rebuilt after its 
destruction by the Persians. The general form of the Greek 
house was not unlike that of the Eoman houses discovered 
at Pompeii ; the street door led through a vestibule into 
a central hall (Aule) open to the air, and surrounded with 
pillars, whence it was also called the Peristyle (irepl, 
around ; oruXo?, a pillar) : in the centre was an altar to 
Zeus. Eound the Aule were small chambers, lighted 
chiefly from it, forming the living and sleeping rooms of 
the men of the household, the sons and men-slaves ; this 
front part of the house was called the Andronitis (dvrjp, 
man ; genitive, dvdpos). Opposite to the street door 
another door and passage led to the women's apartments at 
the back, the Gynaecomtis or Gynasceum (ywrj, a woman ; 
genitive, ywaLKos) ; in a large house the Gynaeceum often 
had a second Aule. The daughters of the family and the 
women-servants were confined to the Gynaeceuin, and 
occupied themselves with household work and spinning, 
under the supervision of the lady of the house ; she 
was permitted herself to come into the Andronitis, but 
retired into the Gynaeceum when her husband had friends. 
Some houses had an upper story, but not usually as large 
as the ground floor ; this was used for slaves' sleeping- 
rooms, and occasionally the Gynaeceum was put there. 

After the loss of Greek independence, when the citizens 
began to think less of the greatness of their city, and turned 
their thoughts more to their private life, the houses began to 
be larger and handsomer. 



CHAPTER XLVI 



CONCLUSION 



It remains to give a rapid sketch of the course of events by 
which, amid the great changes that took place in Europe, 
the modern Greek nation arose from the ruins of the ancient 
Greece. 

The establishment of the Roman Empire improved the 
lot of the Greeks as it did of the other subjects of Rome. 
Julius Caesar had rebuilt the town of Corinth, so ruthlessly 
destroyed by Mummius. Augustus separated Greece from 
Macedonia and made it a province by itself, under the 
name of Achaia, with Corinth, now again a busy sea-port, 
for its capital. Athens and Sparta, in compliment to 
their great past, were left independent, not being in- 
cluded in the province. In this state Greece led a peaceful 
existence for many years, living on the memory of her 
glorious past ; all the old institutions, the Olympic Games, 
the Festivals, and the Assemblies, were kept up. The 
Spartans still trained their boys according to the stern 
old laws of Lycurgus. Athens was still the home of art, 
literature, and philosophy, whither the Romans came to 
complete their education, and to live a life of literary 
ease away from the bustle and turmoil of Rome. The 
Roman rule spread Greek culture over the West, as the 
conquests of Alexander the Great had spread it over the 
East. Greek was now the literary language of the day. 
In every part of the known world Greeks were to be found 
378 



CONCLUSION 379 

pushing their fortunes. Outside Greece were many great 
cities almost entirely Greek — Alexandria, Antioch, the 
Greek colony of Ephesus, and others. But in Greece itself 
wealth and population were slowly dwindling ; it produced 
no great men, nothing to rival the great works of its prime. 

The first change was the coming of Christianity, which 
quickly took root among the intelligent and refined Greeks. 
Then came the division of the Koman Empire by 
Constantine the Great, and the foundation of the new 
Eastern capital, Constantinople, at the old Greek colony of 
Byzantium (a.d. 330). Under the Eastern Empire Greece 
was heavily taxed, and the freedom it had enjoyed hitherto 
was lost ; the free city assemblies were abolished, and 
governments set up which drew their power directly from 
the Emperor. Thus the old institutions were beginning to 
die out : in a.d. 393 the Emperor Theodosius abolished 
the Olympic Games ; and in a.d. 529 the great Emperor 
Justinian closed the schools of philosophy at Athens, by 
refusing to continue the grant of money made to them. 

Meanwhile a mighty change had been coming over the 
world ; the hordes of barbarian Goths from Germany had 
after many years' vain efforts broken through the frontiers 
of the Empire ; other tribes, including the fierce Huns from 
Asia, had followed ; the Western Empire had been over- 
thrown, and a barbarian ruled in Italy. 

Greece had suffered, too, from these invasions ; then the 
Slavs, the ancestors of the modern Russians, driven from their 
homes by the Bulgars, kinsmen of the Huns, made their 
way southwards, and sought new settlements south of the 
Danube ; in the seventh century many of them forced their 
way into Greece and permanently settled there. Gradually, 
in course of time, the invaders became united with the old 
inhabitants, and thus arose the modern Greek nation, half 
Greek, half Slavonic, speaking a language mainly Greek, 
not much altered by the admixture of Slavonian. The 



380 HISTORY OF GREECE 

Bulgars fought fierce wars against the Eastern Empire, but 
were at length repulsed, and settled south of the Danube. 
Other foes were the Saracens of Asia, who conquered Syria 
and Egypt, and for many years threatened the utter 
destruction of the Empire, but, weakened by the attacks of 
the Crusaders in Palestine, they were at length overcome. 

In a.d. 1200 adventurers from the West of Europe, who 
called themselves Crusaders, succeeded in conquering 
Constantinople, and held it for sixty years ; they were 
ultimately driven out and the Eastern Empire re-established, 
though much weakened. They at the same time set up 
Frankish governments in Greece, one of which, the 
Dukedom of Athens, lasted from a.d. 1205 to 1456. 

The Saracens in Asia were succeeded by the fierce 
Ottoman Turks, who, after conquering all Asia Minor, 
crossed into Europe, a.d. 1356. The Eastern Empire 
fought desperately, but inch by inch it lost its territory, till 
Constantinople alone was left. 

In a.d. 1453 the Turks besieged and stormed Con- 
stantinople, and the Eastern Empire passed away for ever. 
Greece speedily fell, and, for the first time, found itself under 
the sway of barbarians. Terrible was the condition to 
which Greece sank during the next centuries ; the land 
was in the possession of Turkish landowners, who received 
it as pay for military service on the same principle as the 
feudal nobles in England ; and the Greek farmers had to 
pay them rent in addition to the heavy taxes, while their 
strongest and handsomest children were carried off to serve 
in the Sultan's army. 

From the conquest of Constantinople the Turks pushed 
on to carry the victorious arms of Islam over all Europe. 
But after two centuries the tide of their success turned, and 
has ebbed ever since ; in a.d. 1683 they were repulsed from 
the walls of Vienna and gradually driven back into what 
is known as modern Turkey ; and, on the north-east, they 



CONCLUSION 381 

were assailed by the rising Empire of Eussia. Encouraged 
by the growing weakness of their oppressors in a.d. 1821, 
the Greeks revolted, and a war of horrible ferocity followed. 
The Turkish fleet was destroyed by English, French, and 
Eussians in the Bay of Navarino (Pylus), 1824, and in 
1829 the Turks, worsted in a land war by the Eussians, 
granted Greece its freedom. Thus again Greece became a 
nation, with Athens, the noblest of all its cities, as its 
capital. From that day its progress has been great ; but, as 
might be expected, it is still but a poor and struggling 
kingdom — one of the several little states that have grown 
up out of the gradual breaking up of the Turkish Empire. 
The Greeks are doing what they can to introduce Western 
ideas and Western civilisation into their country ; their 
monarch, King George, chosen by themselves, is a Danish 
prince, who rules them wisely and well. 



INDEX 



Abydus, 101, 217, 250. 

Academy, 366. 

Acanthus, 259. 

Acarnania, 10, 162, 168, 174. 

AchsRa, 12, 29, 34, 51, 162, 271, 276, 

300, 378. 
Achaean League, 338-344. 
Acharme, 164. 
Achelous River, 10. 
Achilles, 18, 27. 
Acragas, 52. 
Acropolis, 63, 110. 
Acte, Cape, 12. 
Actium, Battle, 345. 
Adeimantus, 109, 111. 
iEgean Sea, 13. 
iEgean, Islands of, 149. 
iEgicoreis, 63. 

Egina, 13, 36, 98, 110, 143, 147, 165. 
/Egospotami Battle, 225. 
^Eolis, 36. 
iEolians, 5. 

Eschines, 294-296, 299, 327, 368. 
Eschylus, 20, 360. 
iEsculapius, 17. 
Ethiopians, 31, 324. 
;Etolia, 10, 34, 174. 
Etolian League, 32S-343. 
Agamemnon, 11, 27. 
Agariste, 59. 
Agathocles, 351-352. 
Agesilaus, 243-253, 256, 260, 264, 280- 

282. 
Agesipolis, 247, 260. 
Agisn., 211, 227, 243. 
Agis in., 326. 
Agis iv., 339. 
Agora, 30, 370. 
Agrigentum, 52, 53, 347, 348. 
Ajax, 67. 



Alcseus, 357. 

Alcibiades, 186-222, 234, 239. 

Alcidas, 172, 176. 

Alcmseonid£e,65, 70-76, 136. 

(1) Alexander the Great, 4, 300-325. 

(2) , son of (1), 330, 333, 335. 

(3) , king of Macedonia, 116. 

(4) , kiDg of Epirus, 303, 352, 353. 

(5) , tyrant of Pherae, 275-277. 

(1) Alexandria (in Egypt), 313, 368. 

(2) (Furthest), 319. 

(3) (near the Caucasus), 318. 

Alphabet, 26. 

Alpheus River, 12, 19. 

Alyattes, 83. 

Amasis, 53. 

Ambracia, 53, 162, 168, 174, 342. 

Ambracian Gulf, 13. 

Amnion, 313. 

Amphictyonic Council, 21, 289, 299. 

Amphictyony, 20. 

Amphipolis, 154, 181-184, 18S, 275, 

278, 2S5, 287. 
Amphipolis Battle, 1S2. 
Amphissa, 299. 
Amyclae, 38. 
(1) Amyntas, 87. 

(2) , father of Philip, 275. 

(3) , grandson of (2), 304. 

Anabasis, the, 366. 
Anacreon, 358. 
Anapus River, 203, 34S. 
Andromache, 31. 
Andronitis, the, 377. 
Antalcidas, 254, 255, 267. 

, Peace of, 256. 

(1) Antigonus, 331-334. 

(2) Doson, 340. 

(3) Gonatas, 336. 

Antioch, 334. 



INDEX 



383 



(1) Antiochus, 335. 

(2) the Great, 341 . 

(3) (Athenian), 232. 

(1) Antipater, 305, 326, 328, 331. 

(2) , son of Cassander, 335. 

Antiphon, 367. 

Antonius, 345. 

Apella, 41. 

Aphrodite, 16, 17. 

Apollo, 10, 16, 19, 21, 51. 

Apollonia, 259. 

Apollonius Rhodius, 356. 

Aratus, 339, 340. 

Arbela Battle, 313. 

Arcadia, 11, 12, 17, 34, 44-46, 135, 276, 

279. 
Archias, 261. 
(1) Archidamus, king of Sparta, 161, 

164, 167. 
(2) , king of Sparta, son of Agesi- 

laus, 276, 279, 352. 
Arehilochus, 357. 
Archon, 64, 76, 132, 139. 
Areopagus, 63, 66, 110, 138, 139. 
Ares, 16. 
Argadeis, 63. 
Arginusse Battle, 223. 
Argives, 29. 
Argo, 32, 92. 
Argolic Gulf, 12. 
Argolis, 11, 27, 34, 3S. 
Argonautica, the, 356. 
Argonauts, 32. 
Argos, 38, 44-47, 59, 103, 135, 145, 

150, 162, 186, 245, 256, 258, 271. 
Ariobarzanes, 315. 
Arion, 358. 
Aristagoras, 87-89. 
Aristarchus, 368. 
Aristeides, 98, 99, 112, 117, 123-126, 

132. 
Aristocracy, 56. 
(1) Aristodemus, 34, 42-45. 

(2) , 108. 

Aristogeiton, 73-75. 
Aristomenes, 45, 46. 
Aristophanes, 18, 231, 362. 



Aristotle, 366. 
Arrian, 368. 

Artabazus, 114, 119, 120. 
Artaphernes, 88, 89, 92. 
(1) Artaxerxes, 129, 148. 

(2) , 235. 

Artemis, 16, 17. 
Artemisia, 112. 
Artemisium, 105. 

, Battles of, 109, 110. 

Aryan, 24. 

Asiatic Greeks, 81, 84, 121, 241, 249, 

254-256. 
Asinaria, 205. 
Asinarus River, 204. 
Asopus River, 118. 
Aspendus, 255. 
Assembly of the People, 30. 
Assyria, 25, 81. 
Astyages, 83. 
Astyochus, 209, 210, 215. 
Athene, 16. 
Athens, 2-6, 10, 20, 23, 29, 34-37, 57, 

62-305, 327-329, 332, 334. 

, Dukedom of, 380. 

, life at, 369. 

Athos, Mount, 1 2, 92, 100. 
Attalus, 303, 304. 
Attic Dialect, 5. 
Attica, 10. 
Augustus, 378. 
Aule, 377. 

Babylon, 49, 82, 85, 237, 314, 324, 331. 

Bacchantes, 17. 

Bacchiadse, 60. 

Bacchus, 17. 

Bactria, 316, 318, 335. 

Barbarians, 5, 29. 

Battle of the Frogs and Mice, 356. 

Bessus, 316, 319. 

Bceotarch, 262. 

Boeotia, 10, 33, 35, 151, 180, 262. 

Boeotians, 21. 

Bosphorus, S6, 216, 254. 

Boule, 30, 69, 76, 140. 

Brasidas, 165, 170, 176, 179-1S3. 



3^4 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



Briseis, 28. 
Brygi, 92. 
Bucephala, 322. 
Bucephalus, 322. 
Bucolics, 363. 
Bui gars, 357. 

Byzantium, 54, 123, 129, 216-219, 239, 
254, 287, 288, 29S, 379. 

Cadmea, 259, 263, 301, 304. 

Cadmus, 26. 

(1) Callias, Peace of (supposed), 148. 

(2) , Peace of, 267. 

Callibus, 230. 

Callicratidas, 222, 223. 

Callimachus, 94. 

Callistlienes, 321. 

Callixenus, 224. 

Calypso, 32. 

Cambunian Mountains, 9. 

Cambyses, 85. 

Canal through Mount Athos, 100. 

Capture of Miletus (play), 360. 

Carthage, 49, 53, 115, 324, 341, 347- 

354. 
Caspian Gates, 316. 
Cassander, 332-335. 
Catana, 192. 
Celts, 24. 

Cephissus River, 10. 
Chabrias, 264-266, 274, 2SS, 297. 
Chaeronea, 151. 
Chreronea Battle, 4, 301. 
Chalcedon, 54, 216-219, 254. 
Chalcideus, 208, 209. 
Chalcidice, 12, 54, 179, 259, 27S. 
Chalcis, 13, 51, 52, 7S. 
Chares, 288, 29S. 
Charidemus, 292. 
Charon, 261. 
Charybdis, 31. 

Chersonese (Thracian), 27S, 295, 297. 
Chios Island, 15, 36, 90, 133, 162, 207, 

20S, 218, 2S7, 2SS. 
Chiton, 375. 
Chlamys, 376. 
Cicero, 355. 



Cilicia, 236. 

Cilician Gates, 236, 310. 

Cimon, 9S, 123, 128, 135-138, 146, 148. 

Cinadon, 243. 

Circe, 32. 

Cirrha, 21, 289, 299. 

Cithgeron, Mount. 10. 

Citium, 148. 

Clearchus, 236-238. 

(1) Cleisthenes, tyrant of Sicyon, 59. 

(2) (Athenian), 74-77.' 

Cleitus, 320,. 321. 
Cleombrotus, 263, 265, 270. 

(1) Cleomenes, 74-78. 

(2) , 339, 340. 

Cleon, 172, 177-183. 

(1) Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, 344. 

(2) , daughter of Olympias, 303, 

331, 333. 

(3) , daughter of Attalus, 303, 

304. 

Cleruch, 78, 288. 

Clubs at Athens, 210. 

Cnidus Battle, 249. 

Codrus, 34, 63. 

Colchians, 32. 

Colonies, 4S, 49. 

Comedy, 362. 

Companions, 308, 320. 

Confederasy of Delos, 125, 133, 153, 

162, 188, 207. 

, second Athenian, 264. 

Conon, 222-226, 245-254. 
Constantine the Great, 379. 
Constantinople, 54, 379, 380. 
Constitution of Athens, 139. 
Copais Lake, 10. 
Corcyra Island, 13, 31, 53, 60, 103, 

155, 159, 162, 175, 178, 265, 266. 
Corinth, 11, 17, 34, 52, 60, 79, 143, 

155, 159, 160, 185, 199, 244-25S, 271, 

300, 339, 344, 350, 378. 
Corinth, Isthmus of, 11. 

Battle, 249. 

, Congress at, 102. 

Corinthian War, 249. 
Coronea, First Battle, 151. 



INDEX 



385 



Coronea, Second Battle, 251. 
Cos Island, 14. 
Cosssei, 324. 
Council, 30. 

, Athenian, 69, 76, 139. 

, Spartan, 41. 

Crannon Battle, 328. 

Cratinus, 362. 

Cresphontes, 34. 

Crete Island, 15, 36, 39, 52, 103, 169. 

Crimisus Battle, 351. 

Critalla, 100. 

Critias, 229-232, 239. 

Croesus, 55, 81-84. 

Croton, 51, 52. 

Crown, Speech on, 327. 

Cryptica, 43, 179. 

Ctesiphon, 327. 

Cumse, 51. 

Cunaxa Battle, 257. 

Cyclades Islands, 13, 32, 36. 

Cyclic Poets, 356. 

Cyclopean Building, 24. 

Cyclops, 32. 

Cydnus River, 311. 

Cylon, 65. 

Cynoscephalse Battle, 341. 

Cynossema Battle, 216. 

Cynuria, 11, 46, 47. 

Cyprus Island, 129, 148, 149. 

Cypselus, 60. 

Cyrene, 53. 

Cyropsedia, 366. 

(1) Cyrus (the Great), 83-85. 

(2) , 221-223, 235-238. 

Cythera Island, 13, 178. 
Cyzicus Battle, 217. 



Delos Island, 14, 116, 132. 

, Confederacy of, 125. 

Delphi, 10, 19, 21, 22, 290, 299. 
Delphic Oracle, 39, 44, 46, 49, 66, 74, 

84, 103, 111, 239. 
Demaratus, 78, 106. 
Deme, 75. 
Demeter, 16. 
(1) Demetrius Poliorcetes, 333-336. 

(2) of Phalerum, 332. 

Demiurgi, 63. 

Democracy, 57. 

(1) Demosthenes (General) 174-180, 

198, 201, 205. 
(2) (Orator), 292-301, 304, 327, 

329, 367. 
Dercyllidas, 242, 250. 
Deucalion, 23. 
Didactic Poetry, 357. 
Diekplus, 169. 
Dio Cassius, 368. 
Dion, 349, 350. 
Dionysia, 20. 
(1) Dionysius the Tyrant, 348, 349. 

(2) , son of (1), 349, 350. 

Diopeithes, 298. 

Dis, 17. 

Disunion of the Greeks, 3. 

Dithyramb, the, 359. 

Dodona, 5, 21. 

Dorians, 5, 21, 29, 33, 38. 

Doris, 33, 145. 

Doriscus, 101. 

Draco, 66. 

Drama, the, 359. 

Dress, 375. 

Dryad, 17. 



Danaans, 29. 

Daric, 86. 

(1) Darius, 85-96. 

(2) Codomannus, 309, 311-316. 

Dascylium, 245. 

Datis, 92. 

Decelea, 195, 206, 214, 218. 

Decelean War, 206. 

Delium Battle, 180. 



Ecbatana, 315, 320. 

Ecclesia, 63, 68, 69, 76, 140. 

Education, 374. 

Egesta, 1S9, 192, 347. 

Egypt, 7, 25, 26, 31, 53, 84, 142, 147- 

149, 282, 309, 313, 331, 334. 
Eion, 128, 133, 182. 
Elam, S3. 
Elatea, 300. 



2b 



3 86 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



Eleusinian -Mysteries, 20, 191, 220. 

Eleusis, 20, 62, 232. 

Elis, 12, 19, 34, 12S, 185, 187, 242, 

276. 
Endius, 218. 

Epaminondas, 4, 261, 267-282. 
Ephebus, 374. 
Ephesus, 17, 36, 221, 242-244, 254, 

310. 
(1) Ephialtes (Phocian), 107. 

(2) (Athenian), 135-138. 

Ephor, 42. 

Epic Poetry, 26, 356. 

Epidainnus, 54, 159. 

Epimenides, QQ. 

Epinicia, 359. 

Epipolse, 193, 195, 201, 348. 

Epirus, 9, 53. 

Eretria, 13, 73, 88, 93. 

Erymanthus, Mount, 12. 

Etruscans, 324. 

Eusenetus, 104. 

Eubcea Island, 13, 151, 207, 213, 293, 

298. 
Eucleides, 233. 
Eudamidas, 259. 
Eumenes, 331-333. 
Eupatrida?, 63. 
Euphrates, 236, 237, 313. 
Euripides, 20, 361. 
Euripus Strait, 13. 
Eurotas Kiver, 11. 
Eurybides, 106, 109-114. 
Eurymedon, 175, 177, 198, 201. 
Eurymedon Battle, 128. 
Eurystheus, 34. 
Euxine, 54. 
Exposure of Children, 373. 

False Embassy, Speech on, 296. 
Festivals, 20, 378. 
Fortification of Athens, 128. 
Four Hundred at Athens, 211-213. 
Five Thousand, 211-213. 

Gal ati a, 336. 
Games, 18. 



Gauls, 24, 324, 336. 

Gaza, 312. 

Gela, 52, 53, 86. 

Geleontes, 63. 

Gelo, 103, 115. 

Geomori, 63. 

Gerousia, 41. 

Golden Fleece, 32. 

Gordian Knot, 310. 

Gordium, 310. 

Gorgias, 367. 

Greed, 5. 

Granicus Battle, 310. 

Graphe Paranomon, 140, 225, 327. 

Great Harbour of Syracuse Battle, 

202. 
Greek (name), 5. 
Gyges, 55. 
Gylippus, 195-205. 
Gymnastics, 370. 
Gymnasium, 370. 
Gynseceum, 377. 
Gynaeconitis, 377. 

Haliartus Battle, 246. 
Halicarnassus, 310. 
Halonnesus Island, 297. 
Halys River, 55, 83, 84. 
Hamilcar, 115. 

(1) Hannibal, 341, 354. 

(2) , 347. 

Harmodius, 73-75. 
Harmost, 226. 
Harpalus, 316, 323, 327. 
Hecataeus, 364. 
Hector, 28, 31. 
Helen, 27. 

Helia?a, 69, 138, 140. 
Heliast, 138. 
Helicon, Mount, 10. 
Hellas, 4. 
Hellen, 23. 
Hellenes, 4, 23, 25. 
Hellenica, the, 365. 
Hellespont, 30, 216-226, 228. 

, Bridge over, 101, 114, 122. 

Helo«, <*3. 



INDEX 



387 



Helot, 42, 46. 179. 

Helot Revolt, 137, 143, 147. 

Hemlock, 231. 

Hephsestion, 320, 323. 

Hephaestus, 16. 

Hera, 16. 

Heracleidas, return of, 34. 

Heracles, 17, 18, 34. 

Hermae, Mutilation of, 190. 

Hermes, 17. 

Hermocrates, 192, 194, 195, 209, 210. 

Herodotus, 364. 

Hesiod, 357. 

Hiero, 353. 

Hieronymus, 354. 

Hill-men, 67, 71. 

Himation. 376. 

Himera, 52, 115, 347, 348. 

Battle, 115. 

(River) Battle, 352. 

Himilco, 347, 348. 

Hindoo Koosh Mountains, 31 S. 

Hipparchus, 72-74. 

Hippias, 72, 78, 92, 96. 

Hippocleides, 59. 

Hippocrates, ISO. 

Histiaeus, 87-89. 

Homer, 26, 73, 356, 374 

Homeric Hymns, 356. 

Hopletes, 63. 

Hoplite, 94. 

House (Private), 376. 

Hydaspes, 322. 

Hyllus, 33. 

Hymettus, Mount, 10. 

Hypasis River, 322. 

Hyperboreans, 31. 

Iliad, 26, 67, 356. 
Ilium, 26. 
Illyria, 8, 285. 
Imbros Island, 255. 
Immortals, 107. 
Inarus, 142. 

In lependence, Love of, 3. 
India, 85, 86, 321, 335. 
Indus, 321, 322. 



Inferiors, 41. 

Ionia, 36. 

Ionians, 2, 5, 21, 29, 35, 63, 121. 

Ionian Islands, 13. 

Revolt, 87. 

Iphicrates, 252-255, 266, 267, 274, 

288. 
Ipsus Battle, 334. 
Ira, 45. 
Isaeus, 367. 
Isagoras, 75-77. 
Ismenias, 259, 260. 
Isocrates, 302, 367. 
Issus Battle, 311. 
Isthmian Games, 18-20. 
Isthmus of Corinth, 110. 
Italian Greeks, 52, 349-353. 
Italiots, 50. 
Italy, 24, 50. 
Ithaca, 13, 26. 
Ithome, 44, 137, 147. 

Jaddua, 312. 
(1) Jason, 32. 

(2) , tyrant of Pherae, 271, 273. 

Jaxartes River, 319. 
Jerusalem, 312. 
Judas Maccabaeus, 335. 
Julius Caesar, 378. 
Justinian, 379. 

King, 29. 

Kings at Sparta, 42. 

Knights (Athenian), 68. 

Labdalum, 195, 198. 
Lacedaemon, 11. 
Lacedaemonians. See Sparta. 
Laconia, 11, 34. 
Laconican Gulf, 13. 
Lade Battle, 89, 90. 
Laestrygonians, 32. 
Lamachus, 190-196. 
Lamia, 328. 
Lamian War, 328. 
Lampsacus, 225. 
Larissa, 9. 



388 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



Laurium, Mount, 10. 
Lechseum, 250, 253, 254. 
Lemnos Island, 255. 
(1) Leonidas, 105-108. 

(2) , 339. 

Leontiades, 259-262. 

Leosthenes, 328. 

(1) Leotychides, 116, 121, 130. 

(2) , 243. 

Lesbos, 15, 36, 133, 162, 171-173, 207. 

Leuctra Battle, 269. 

Lilybseum, 353. 

Locri, 350. 

Locris, 10, 105, 151, 162, 246, 272, 290, 

299. 
Long Walls (Athens), 144, 227, 252. 

(Argos), 1S7. 

(Corinth), 250, 252. 

(Megara), 143. 

Lot, 76. 

Lotus-eaters, 32. 

Lucanians, 50-52, 349-353. 

Lucian, 367. 

Lycomedes, 272, 275. 

(1) Lycophron (Tyrant of Corcyra), 61. 

(2) (Tyrant of Pherse), 291. 

(1) Lycurgus (Spartan), 39. 

(2) (Athenian), 71, 72. 

, Institutions of, 40, 339, 378. 

Lydia, 53, 55, 81-84. 

Lyric Poetry, 357. 

Lysander, 221, 225-234, 243-246. 

Lysias, 367. 

Lysimachus, 331, 334, 336. 

Macedonia, 4, 5, 8, 87, 136, 160, 170, 

260, 275, 2S4-305, 326-343. 
Maenad, 17. 

Magna Gra?cia, 52, 349-353. 
Magnesia Battle, 341. 
Malea, Cape, 11. 
Malian Gulf, 12. 
Mantinea, 12, 1S5, 254, 259, 272, 279- 

2S2. 
Mantinea Battle, First, 187. 

, Second, 281. 

Marathon Bay, 73, 94. 



Marathon Battle, 94-96. 
Mardonius, 91, 113-120. 
Massilia (Marseilles), 53. 
Medes, 24, 81-83. 
Medism, 120, 129. 
(1) Megacles, 59. 

(2) , 65, 71-73. 

Megalopolis, 274, 279, 282, 292, 326. 
Megara, 11, 54, 66, 143, 152, 162, 165, 

170, 179. 
Melissa, 61. 
Melos Island, 14, 188. 
Memnon, 309. 
Memphis, 142, 313. 
Menander, 363. 
Menelaus, 27. 
Mercenaries, 236. 
Mesopotamia, 25. 
Messene (Greece), 274. 

(Sicily), 52, 193. 

Messenia, 11, 34, 43-46, 51, 273-276. 

Messenian Gulf, 13. 

Methone, 165, 291. 

Methymna, 223. 

Metic, 141, 231, 372. 

Metropolis, 49. 

Miletus, 36, 53, 60, 89, 121. 208, 215, 

310. 
(1) Miltiades, 71, 72. 

(2) , son of (1), 87, 94, 97. 

Mindarus, 216-218. 
Mithridates, 344. 
Mitylene, 171-173, 208, 223. 
Modern Greece, 381. 
Monarchy, End of, 56. 
Money, 31. 
Mora Spartan, 253. 
Mummius, 344. 
Munychia, 12S, 232, 329-334. 
Mycale, Cape, 37, 121. 
Mycenie, 11, 27, 38. 
Myrmidons, 27. 
Myronides, 143. 
Mysteries of Eleusis, 20. 

Xaiad, 17. 
Naucratis, 53. 



INDEX 



389 



Naupactus, 147, 162, 169, 174. 

Navarino, 13. 

(1) Naxos Island, 14, 88, 133. 

(2) (in Sicily), 52, 192. 

Battle, 265. 

Nearchus, 322. 

Nebuchadnezzar, 49, 82. 

Nemean Games, 19. 

Nereid, 17. 

Nicsea, 322. 

Nicias, 177, 182, 186-204. 

Peace of, 183. 

Nineveh, 82. 
Nine Roads, 133, 154. 
Niseea, 143, 179. 
Notium Battle, 222. 

Oceanus, 32. 
Ochus, 309. 
Octavius, 345. 
Odysseus, 13, 26, 31. 
Odyssey, 26, 356. 
CEkist, 49. 
(Enoe, 164. 

CEnophyta Battle, 147. 
Oligarchy, 56. 
Olympia, 19. 

Battle, 279. 

Olympiad, First, 19. 

Olympias, 303, 331-333. 

Olympic Games, 5, 18, 35-37, 59, 65, 

104, 171, 186, 279, 302, 349. 
Olympus, Mount, 9, 17. 
Olynthus, 54, 259, 287, 293. 
Onomarchus, 290. 
Oracle, 10, 16, 21. 
Oratory, 366. 

(1) Orchomenus (Boeotia), 151, 250, 
265, 272. 

(2) — - (Arcadia), 272. 
Orestes, 46. 
Orthagoras, 59. 
Ortygia, 193, 348-351. 
Ossa, Mount, 9. 
Ostracism, 76. 
Othryades, 47. 
Othrys, Mount, 9. 



Oxus River, 319. 

Paches, 172. 

Psedagogus, 374. 

Pagasse, 291, 298. 

Pagasaean Gulf, 12. 

Pallas, 16. 

Pallene, Cape, 12. 

Pan, 17. 

Panathemea, 20, 73. 

Pancratium, 19. 

PangEeus, Mount, 133. 

Panionium, 37. 

Panormus, 347. 

Paralus, 212. 

Paris, 27. 

Parmenio, 303, 312, 313, 320. 

Parnassus, Mount, 10, 111. 

Parnon, Mount, 11. 

Pares Island, 97. 

Parthians, 335. 

Parysatis, 221, 245. 

Pasargadge, 315. 

Patroclus, 28. 

(1) Pausanias, 117-120, 123, 129, 130. 

(2) , 230-233, 246, 247. 

(3) (Murderer of Philip), 303. 

(4) , 368. 

Peirseus, 98, 128, 170, 212, 255, 263, 332. 
(1) Peisander (Athenian), 210-213. 

(2) (Spartan) 245, 248. 

Peisistratus, 59, 61, 71-73. 

Pelasgi, 24. 

Peleus, 27. 

Pelion, Mount, 9. 

Pelopidas, 260-262, 265, 275-277. 

Peloponnesian War, 158-228. 

Peloponnesus, 11. 

Pelops, 11. 

Peltast, 255. 

Penelope, 31. 

Peneus River (Arcadia), 12. 

(Thessaly), 9. 

Pentacosiomedimni, 6S. 
Pentathlum, 19. 

(1) Perdiccas (King of Macedonia), 
160, 170, 179, 188. 



390 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



(2) Perdiccas (Brother of Philip), 278, 
2S5. 

(3) (General), 325, 331. 

Periander, 60. 

Pericles, 136, 152, 160-166 

Perinthus, 298. 

Periceci, 42. 

Peristyle, 377. 

Persepolis, 315. 

Perseus, 343. 

Persians, 83-149, 207-226, 235-238, 241- 

248, 255-256, 302-316. 
Persian Gates, 315. 
Persians (the play), 360. 
Phseacians, 31. 
Phalsecus, 294, 295. 
Phalaris, 59. 
Phalanx, 2S6. 
Phalerum, 96. 
Pharnabazus, 208, 216, 234, 244-248, 

252. 
Phayllus, 291, 294. 
Pheidippides, 94. 
Pheidon, 38. 
Pherae, 9, 271, 275, 291. 
(1) Philip, King of Macedonia, 275, 

284-303. 

(2) V., 340-342. 

(3) Arrhidseus, 330, 333. 

(4) , son of Cassander, 335. 

(5) Philippus (Theban), 261. 
Philocrates, 294-296. 

, Peace of, 295. 

Philomelus, 290. 

Philopoemen, 342. 

Philotas, 320. 

Phlius, 19. 

Phocaea, 53. 

Phocion, 292, 304, 328, 332. 

Phocis, 10, 102, 110, 145, 151, 162, 246, 

251, 266, 272, 290-295. 
Phoebidas, 259, 264. 
Phoebus, 16. 
Phoenicia, 7, 25, 31, 35, 48, 101, 129, 

155, 309, 312. 
Pholce, 105. 
Phormio, 168-170. 



Phrynichus, 209-213, 359. 

Phya, 72. 

Phyle, 232. 

Phyllidas, 261. 

Pillars of Heracles, 32. 

Pindar, 19, 359. 

Pindus, Mount, 9. 

Piracy, 30. 

Pisa, 12, 19, 279. 

Pisidia, 235. 

Plague at Athens, 165, 174. 

Plain-men, 67, 71. 

Platsea 10, 33, 77, 94, 102, 111, 163, 

173, 258, 262, 267. 272. 
Platsea, Battle, 118-120. 

Siege, 167, 173. 

Plato, 239, 219, 366, 
Plautus, 363. 
Pleistoanax, 152. 
Plemniyrium, 198, 199. 
Plutarch, 368. 
Polemarch, 64, 76. 
Polis, 3. 

Polybius, 343, 36S. 
Polycrates, 59. 
Polysperchon, 332. 
Population of Athens, 141. 
Porus, 322, 335. 
Poseidon, 16, 17, 20, 37. 
Potidaea, 54, 161, 166, 287. 

, Siege of, 161, 163. 

Priam, 27. 

Propontis, 54. 

Prytany, 140. 

(1) Ptolemy (Regent of Macedonia), 

275, 278. 
(2) , King of Egypt, 331, 334, 

336. 

(3) Ceraunus, 336. 

Punic Wars, 353, 354. 
Punjaub, 321, 335. 
Pydna, 287. 

Battle, 343. 

Pylus Bay, 13, 175-178, 21S, 381. 
Pyrrha, 23. 

Pyrrlms, 336, 337, 353. 
Pythian Games, IS, 59, 296. 



INDEX 



391 



Pytho, 21. 

Ransom of Hector, 349. 

Rhegium, 51, 191. 

Rhodes Island, 14, 36, 52, 210, 245, 

287, 334. 
Rome, 4, 52, 53, 324, 341-345. 
Roxana, 319-334. 

Sacred Band, 180, 269, 301. 

War, First, 21, 59. 

, Second, 290. 

— : , Third, 299. 

Salsethus, 172. 

Salamis Island, 13, 66, 111-113, 170. 

(Cyprus), 334. 

Battle, 111-113. 

Salaminia, 193. 
Samnites, 353. 
Samos Island, 14, 36, 121, 133, 155, 

208, 212, 229, 278, 288. 
Sanscrit, 23. • 

Sappho, 357. 
Sardanapalus, 82. 
Sardis, 55, 84, 88, 100, 244, 310. 
Sarissa, 286. 
Saronic Gulf, 12. 
Satrap, 86. 
Satyr, 17, 359. 
Sculpture, 26. 
Scylla, 31. 
Scyrus, 255. 
Scythians, 81,85, 324. 
Seisactheia, 68. 
Seleucia', 334. 
Seleucus, 331, 334, 336. 
Selinus, 189, 347, 34S. 
Sellasia Battle, 340. 
Sestus, 101, 122, 234. 
Shield of Heracles, the, 357. 
Shore-men, 67, 91. 
Sicani, 50. 
Sicels, 50. 
Siceliots, 50. 
Sicilian Greeks, 175, 178, 189, 346, 

355. 
Sicily, 50, 115. 



I Sicyon, 59, 339. 

I Siclon, 312. 

| Simonides, 358. 

I Sinope, 54. 

! Sirens, 32. 

! Sitalces, 166, 170. 

j Sithonian, Cape, 12. 

i Skytalism, 271. 

I Slavery, 31, 141, 372. 

Slavs, 24, 357. 

Smyrna, 36. 

Social War, 2S8. 

Socrates, 239, 240. 

Sogdiana, 318, 335. 

Sogdian Rock, 319. 

Solon, 65-71, 83, 84. 

Sophocles, 20, 360. 

Sparta, 3, 6, 11, 37, 35-47, 51, 57, 67, 
74, 88, 92, 94, 104-280, 292, 302, 326, 
339, 342. 

Spartan boys, 40. 

citizens, 41. 

training, 40. 

women, 41. 

Spercheus River, 9. 

Sphacteria, 176-178. 

Sphodrias, 263, 270. 

Sporades Islands, 14, 36. 

Statira, 331. 

Stesichorus, 358. 

Stone Quarries of Syracuse, 205. 

Strabo, 368. 

Strategus, 76, 139. 

Susa, S3, 86, 314. 

Sybaris, 51, 52, 154. 

Symposiarch, 371. 

Symposium j 371. 

Syracuse, 52, 53, 103, 175, 193, 195-205, 
346-354. 

Syracuse, Sieges of, 195-205, 348, 354. 

Syria, 331, 335, 344. 

T.exarvm, Cape, 11. 
Tanagra, Battle, 146. 
Tarentum, 51, 352, 353. 
Tarshish, 26. 
Tarsus, -266, 310. 



392 



HISTORY OF GREECE 



Tartessus, 26. 

Taygetus, Mount, 11. 

Tearless Battle, 276. 

Tegea, 12, 46, 279. 

Teleutias, 254, 260. 

Temerms, 34. 

Tempe, 9, 104. 

Ten, the, 252. 

Ten Thousand, the, 235-239, 242 

Terence, 363. 

Teutons, 24. 

'Thalatta,' 238. 

Thapsacus, 237, 313. 

Thasos Island, 15, 133, 181. 

Theagenes, 65. 

Thebes, 4, 6, 10, 77, 92, 103, 105, 119, 

145, 152, 162, 185, 199, 227, 230, 244, 

258-305. 
Themistocles, 98, 104-114, 127-131. 
Theocritus, 363. 
Theodosius, 379. 
Theogony, the, 357. 
Thera Island, 53. 
Theramenes, 212, 224, 227-231. 
Therma, 102. 
Thermopylae, 9, 21, 104-108, 251, 290- 

297, 341. 
Theseus, 63. 
Thesmothetse, 64. 
Thespiee, 33, 102, 105, 108, 110, 262, 

272. 
Thespis, 359. 
Thessaly, 9, 21, 33, 104, 148, 162, 276, 

291. 
Thetes, 27, 68, 141. 
Thimbron, 242, 254. 
Thirty Tyrants, 229-233. 

Years' Peace, 153. 

Thrace, 8, 17, 304, 331. 

(1) Thrasybulus (Athenian), 212, 215- 

218, 224, 230-233, 254. 
(2) (of Miletus), 60. 



Thrasyllus, 215-219, 224. 

(1) Thucydides (Historian), 181, 364. 

(2) (son of Milesias), 153. 

Thurii, 154. 

Thyrea, 178. 

Timocracy, 69. 

Timoleon, 350. 

Timoleonteuni, 351. 

Timotheus, 264-266, 278, 288. 

Tolniides, 151. 
, Torone, 182. 
| Trachis, 106. 
| Tragedy, 359. 

Trapezus (Trebizond), 54, 238. 
j Trireme, 97. 
I Trcezen, 110. 
| Troy, 26. 
| Tyrant, 58. 
' Tyre, 25, 49, 312. 

Tyrteeus, 45. 

Ulysses, 13, 26. 

Verres, 355. 
Virgil, 363. 

White Fort, 142, 148. 
Women (position of), 372. 
Wooden Horse, 28. 
Works and Days, 357. 

Xanthippus, 97. 
Xenophon, 236-240, 365. 
Xerxes, 96-114, 129. 

Year of Anarchy, 233. 

Zacynthus, 266. 
Zama Battle, 341, 354. 
Zancle, 52. 
Zeugitse, 68. 
Zeus, 16, 19, 313. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



027 584 386 61 



^jtfsii 


IP 


ra2*ffl9&i 


H II 




&WS2J! |w 


*w?3Jm£n 


Mil 



11 

1 

■ 

1 



